Some twenty-one (21) 15 to 17 year old students of the Parkinson Memorial Secondary School are experiencing the real world of work as they intern at various Goddard Enterprises Ltd (GEL) subsidiaries around the island.

“After we adopted the Parkinson School a few years ago, we conceived this internship programme, which is run by our HR Team, to help develop the students and give the seniors in the school a feel for going to work daily and experiencing what it is like to work in an organisation. And so far this year, I have received glowing commendations for these students and how they have been operating in the workplace” stated CEO of GEL Anthony Ali.

This sentiment was echoed by Don Cumberbatch, the Senior Battery Technician at Tropical Battery, one of the few companies here that assemble their own batteries, where Thriston Forde and Ramario Best were working. They are being trained to weld the poles on the batteries, assemble the batteries and install them into the vehicles under the watchful eye of Cumberbatch and his team. He testified that the two students have a very good work attitude.  He explained that they have been punctual, enthusiastic and extremely interested in the job, adding that some days he had to chase them when they didn’t want to go to lunch, if they got into doing something they liked in the plant.

Ramario explained that he had learnt quite a lot since being there especially how to make the customers happy. He added that he had built a good relationship with the other workers, discovered his love for mechanics and really wanted to get into this area on leaving school.

Thriston confirmed that based on what he had learnt at Tropical Battery, he wanted to pursue a course in Mechanical Engineering at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology.

Not too far from them, two other students were working with the Property Management Department.  The two had been painting a room to ready it for a new client in the GEL Training Room complex. Amethyst Lafargue and Darrian Hinds both describe the experience as a good one where they have been able to learn quite a lot, with Amethyst confirming that his Dad did a similar thing and now he knew what he did when he left home.

Looking forward to returning to school, the two confirmed that they have discovered a love for working with their hands and really valued the experience this summer.

A number of other students have been deployed at other GEL organisations.