 A week-long schedule of events focused on the promotion of TVET was held through the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Education, the St. Lucia Council for Technical Vocational Education and Training, and JEPSED, the Generation of Employment through Private Sector Development Program. In December 2020, the government of St. Lucia signed a financing agreement with the European Union for €6.5 million for the implementation of the Employment Generation and Private Sector Development Program through a modernized and enhanced TVET framework. The goal is to develop a dynamic, competitive, and resilient workforce with a particular focus on unemployed workers, young people, women, and identified marginalized groups, giving TVET equal support as traditional subjects. Today's activities are organized by the National Authorizing Office or NAO in the Ministry of Economic Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National TVET Council. Today's event targets specifically our young people with a view to focusing their attention on TVET-related career areas. For many years, the Ministry of Education promoted careers in what we call STEM, or the STEM fields, namely science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, broadly encompass most of those careers. Today, the Ministry of Education is placing equal emphasis on the pursuit of careers that fall within the realm of technical and vocational studies. For too long, people have viewed TVET as straining for individuals who are not academically inclined or persons whom society often referred to as not being bright. This is a perspective and a notion that we at the Ministry of Education will at every opportunity emphatically denounce. Besides an industry linkage forum, pairing students with industry professionals, stakeholder engagements, and a career fair, the week concluded with the opening of the GEPSET Workforce Development Center. The center will focus on the evaluation of individuals' needs and current skillsets and create a pathway to certification, apprenticeship, employment, and or entrepreneurship. Executive Director of the TVET National Council, Esther Lita Rennie, said the Workforce Development Center will fill in many gaps and provide tangible support to young people who are unemployed or underemployed. We are hoping that the Workforce Development Center will kickstart the Ministry of Education's efforts in ensuring that technical vocational education and training at last gets its rightful place in economic development and the whole workforce development of St. Lucia. It is for this reason that the TVET Council sat and conceptualized a workforce development center because we felt that this was one of the pieces which were missing from our TVET landscape. The implementation of the 2019-2025 National TVET framework will see a better alignment of education and the training systems with labour market needs, thus creating more job opportunities, creation of safety nets for persons to pursue certification, ultimately ensuring that St. Lucia develops a dynamic, competitive, and resilient workforce. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology, and Vocational Training, I am Danielle Dubois reporting.