By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 7th September 2022) — A facilitator at the National Skills Training Programme (NSTP), Alan Herbert, a skilled carpenter and joiner, has shared his view that the COVID-19 pandemic has given lessons about the value of having a skill and is encouraging those without such hands-on skillsets to get them. “The pandemic really changed a lot of things in terms of how we look at things. Most of us are in offices but because of this change, most persons have been like ‘Let me find something for my hands to do’ and then they realize that they could learn a trade,” Herbert said. He highlighted the environmental angle: “Using these waste pallets where we just throw them on the dumpsite, we can make garden furniture with them and especially clean up the environment instead of having these polluting all over the place — even car tires. Find ideas; you ask God for wisdom and you go to lessen the impact on the environment especially with the trash that is around.”
Herbert, who has been an NSTP facilitator for about 25 years, also observed that gender norms in trades are shifting: “Here in the Caribbean especially here in St. Kitts, we hardly see women doing carpentry, joinery, construction and things like that, but if you go to the States it’s a big difference — ladies are doing everything that men do. Here I can see the potential in these ladies; they’re saying ‘Yes, we’re ready for this thing.’ That adjustment can be made here in St. Kitts-Nevis whereby women here are doing what some call ‘men work.’” Safety is always the top priority in skills training: “We always put safety first. We have to put the proper gears such as hard shoes and short sleeve shirts because we can get seriously injured from the machines. I have seen people get their fingers cut off so it’s more like paying attention.” Persons interested in the NSTP can visit the centre at Orchid Street, Greenlands in Basseterre, or call 465-2855.