Education officials have underscored the value of soft skills among youth as part of the framework for preparing for the world of work, with over 300 students from 16 secondary schools graduating from the Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Challenges – Transforming Children’s Lives (PTFTC-TCL) programme.
The recognition ceremony, now in its tenth year, saw the latest cohort of students awarded for their participation in the skills training programme conducted in collaboration with the University of the West Indies and the Ministry of Education, with funding from the Sandals Foundation.
Speaking at Sandals Royal Barbados on Wednesday, acting Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles underscored the need for more than academic qualifications.
Acting Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham)
“Employees and communities and employers increasingly value individuals who can communicate clearly, work collaboratively, manage conflict constructively, demonstrate professionalism, and build positive relationships, and this is all that you have been taught during your six months here in this programme.”
She praised the team for its commitment to Barbados’ youth.
“We are at a juncture in our development where we need a whole-of-nation effort as we prepare our young people for tomorrow’s challenges. That you have been making this contribution for a decade is testimony to your understanding of the importance of investing in the nation’s youth.”
Beckles also outlined the SAVE framework, which she said should guide students as they pursue personal excellence: “We expect that SAVE — skills, attitudes, values, and excellence — will be infused in every single action with which or in which our students participate.”
She argued that so-called soft skills will remain valuable and may become even more important.
“There is a debate as to whether they should be called soft skills because, as someone said, they’re really much more important than that. We know that even though the job market will change, those skills, the value of those skills, will remain, if not increase.”
The education chief also highlighted the Ministry of Education Transformation’s plans to launch its Community Service Learning Programme in September 2026, aimed at encouraging students to become involved in school organisations, clubs, service groups and sporting teams.
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Global Campus, Dr Francis Severin, urged students to preserve their dignity as carefully as they would protect money in the bank.
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Global Campus, Dr Francis Severin. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham)
“Saving on dignity allows you to achieve personal goals as well. Because of that sense of dignity and your honour, you can enter interviews without worrying about your digital footprints, photographs or videos that you have taken in compromising situations that you hope and you live in fear will not arise in future. That’s the dignity I’m talking about. So you may have money in the bank, but if you don’t have dignity in the bank, quote unquote, then you’re lost.”
Dignity, like savings, should be built and preserved over time, Dr Severin said.
“Dignity is really a state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect. Other words that might be invoked, synonyms as it were, for dignity would be self-respect, self-esteem, self-worth, excellence, poise, self-confidence, self-control, majestic, and so on. Hence, and here’s where I make the logical connection between banking for the future or saving for the future and building dignity for the future.”
He warned that academic credentials and material possessions could not compensate for poor decisions that undermine a person’s character.
“If you don’t have that sense of self and worthiness based on how you have lived, that pride in self, then you will not have that freedom and that flexibility to make excellent life choices.”
The programme’s expansion has been supported by the Sandals Foundation in collaboration with the Rock Hard Foundation, which has invested more than $130 000 in its delivery.
Resort Manager of Sandals Barbados, Patrick Drake, told students that the programme equips them not only for business, but for life, and encouraged them to think beyond Barbados and see the opportunities available through technology.
“Don’t just think of Barbados as a small island; with technology today, the world really is your oyster.”
The skills students developed over the six-month programme would remain critical despite rapid technological change, Drake said.
“Looking at the faces of each of you this morning, I want you to know that even as you navigate a world of incredible change, changing technology, how we use technology and how technology affects how we operate. Your mastering of the skills in effective communication, collaboration, negotiation, self-confidence, and teamwork will forever be an integral part of your success and hope for you to attain all you can.”
Beckles charged students with continuing to develop the skills they had acquired through the programme.
“Continue to strive for excellence, embrace lifelong learning, and serve as ambassadors for the values and the skills that this program has promoted. Most of all, remember that one definition of tomorrow is, and I quote, ‘The day after today’. You may need those skills much sooner than you think.”
(LG)
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