C.E.T. students strut their stuff

Many schools hold open days, but the event at the Centre for Employment Training is not only a chance for students to show what they have done, but also impress potential employers with what they can do for them. News Five was invited to the school on St. Thomas Street today where we met some very articulate and together young people who are eager to take on any job.

Dwane King, Trainee, CET
?You have the four strokes: intake, compression, power, exhaust. When the pistons deh dah top dead centre and come down dah bottom dead centre, the intake valve open and fresh air enter the cylinder.?

Patrick Jones, Reporting
He?s only fifteen years old, but Dwane King has a knowledge of vehicle engines that some mechanics many years his senior struggle to articulate. King and other students of the Centre for Employment Training today gave prospective employers an opportunity to sample their academic and artistic talents.

Kenroy Ellis, Manager, CET
?It?s geared towards inviting persons from the private sector and other schools, primary and secondary schools, to come in and view the skills that the trainees have acquired over the past few months since they?ve started school in September.?

Those skills cover the nine programme areas offered by the Centre for Employment Training, including: electrical, plumbing, carpentry, masonry, A.C./refrigeration repair, hospitality and catering, welding, and automotive. The quality of work that was displayed during the open day would befit the elegance of any home and is an indication that when it comes to talent, these young men and women do not take a back seat to any of their peers.

Tanya Lopez, CET Trainee
?I had to square it, bend these, the twisted rods, then weld it together. It?s easy because all you need to know if how to measure, level, and make sure that it?s square and you are good to weld.?

Jamie Broaster, CET Trainee
?I started by measuring up things first, then after that I start to bend it. Bend that part first, then I just had to bend the square tubing and then I started to weld the three-eights round steel, then after that I just started to put everything together, and then after that I just started to weld it up.?

Patrick Jones
?How long did it take you to put everything together??

B>Jamie Broaster
?It did not take too long. It?s just like commonsense you do that. The teacher just help you, if you don?t know a part, he just helps you in a way too.?

And when they are not building things with ideas lifted from magazines, the trainees are putting their imagination to work.

Lesmore Barker and others in the welding programme have designed a novel way of making it more challenging for criminals to target a popular mode of transportation among teenagers.

Lesmore Barker, CET Trainee
?Well like nobody could thief your bike. And if they thief your bike, you just go to the station, report it, take a picture, and report it to the station and after that they find your bike, quick, fast.?

Patrick Jones
?Now how long did it take you to customise this bike??

Lesmore Barker
?Half a day.?

And for those who prefer the four wheel mode of transportation, Dwane King is the man your want to hook up with to ensure that your vehicle is problem free on the road for a long, long time.

Dwane King, CET Trainee
?Fi this vehicle work without problem the seals have to be good, the oil seals so that no oil noh the leak within the cylinder, because if oil gets in there it?s a problem.?

Patrick Jones
When this is working it gets hot, how does it cool off??

Dwane King, CET Trainee
?The cooling system. The water runs in here and they have the bypass air from underneath the vehicle when the vehicle is moving fast which helps cool it, apart from the water from the cooling system when the water flows between the water jackets around the cylinder wall. Outside of the cylinder wall is the water jackets.?

The pint sized mechanic recommends that to keep your engine running problem free, the oil must be change every three months or after a certain amount of mileage. Otherwise…

Dwane King
?the oil get too thin. The oil cleans the engine, it clean and seals the engine. So if the oil the get thin, it will just mess up the engine.?

And while he comes off as a very knowledgeable person for someone his age, King says he is no novice and is confident of what he is doing.

Dwane King
?Most of it, because I was dealing with mechanic before I come here. I just come finish my trade because I want to further my education. I want to work and mine my ma and mi pa when they get old.?

And that?s the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that is right in keeping with the goals and objectives of the CET programme.

Patrick Jones
?What has been the success of CET since it started??

Kenroy Ellis, Manager, CET
?Well the success of CET has been close to sixty percent. We have about sixty percent persons who have been employed. And we also have twenty-eight percent who have come into the institution who have preferred to go back to a formal institution. And of course the remaining percentage just do not get a job or are not placed.?

Still, Ellis says the programme continues to play a vital role in the society.

Kenroy Ellis
?I do believe that it is playing a role. We do have some ups and down like any other institution. We have some negative things that do happen from time to time, but we are committed to uplifting that image and we work very hard at that.?

Patrick Jones
?Who are the people who have access to CET? Is it just drop-outs from the regular system?

Kenroy Ellis
?Certainly not. Currently we have three different populations. We have persons who dropped out of primary school which would be one population. We have persons who have completed secondary school, we have persons who have completed up to second or third form, and we also have one or two sixth form graduates who are doing the craft level programmes.?

Today?s open day, which was hosted at the schools compound on St. Thomas Street, is in advance of on-the-job-training which commences on Monday of next week during which prospective employers will get to work with the students for a period of time to determine if they are suitable for full time employment upon graduation. Patrick Jones, for News Five.

If you would like to hire any of the students featured in the story, you can make arrangements through the Centre for Employment for Training. Dwane King can be reached by calling telephone number 609-7991.