Skills Day A Success in Port aux Basques
Skills Day has been an annual undertaking of the Career Planning Sub-Committee of the Marine Mountain Youth Employment Strategy. This committee is coordinated through Communities In Schools (CIS) with support from school Guidance Counsellors, Advanced Education & Skills and the Western School District.
This year, Skills Day was held on May 24th at St. Christopher’s Hotel in Port aux Basques. It included Grade 11 students from Grandy’s River Collegiate (Burnt Islands) St. James Regional High (Port aux Basques) and Belanger Memorial (Codroy Valley). Some 60 students participated in the 7 sessions offered. All students were bussed to St. Christopher’s.
Sessions and facilitators for the day included:
- Dorm Style Cooking – Gertie Meade-Bessey, CIS Site Coordinator and Rob Parsons, St. James High School Nutrition Teacher
- Yoga – Diane Graham, Personal Trainer
- Personal Safety – Jeremy Lane
- Money Smarts – Randi Alexander and Lisa Purchase, Leading Edge Credit Union
- Employability Skills – Maxine Edwards, Advanced Education & Skills
- Sexual Health Jeopardy – Kim Dawson, Western Health
- Team Building – Barry Green, The Unity Connection
Students were given the choice of selecting 4 sessions of the 7 offered. Four sessions ran concurrently each with 35 minute sessions. As in years past, Barry Green, The Unity Guy, was our keynote speaker for the day. Feedback from the students was phenomenal and was evident by the smiles on their faces.
A special thanks to our many community partners who helped make this day such a success and to Advanced Education & Skills for providing financial support for the event.
