 The Train the Teacher's Teacher Immersion Program is one of the initiatives under the multi-faceted World Bank Finance, St. Lucia Human Capital Resilience Project, which ultimately seeks to strengthen the resilience of St. Lucia's human capital stock by strengthening the TVED system's capacity to respond to the quickly changing labor market demands. The 81 teachers who graduated recently, engaged in a series of workshops yet towards expanding capacity in existing and in new subjects to strengthen and expand TVED offerings and the capacity in schools to secure alternative pathways for young students in the job market. Education Minister Hon. Sean Edwin thanked the teachers for their invaluable contribution to education in St. Lucia and says the program is a necessary component in seeking to reduce unemployment and to promote higher productivity among young people on the island. And this is an area that I have attempted to push as minister as much as I can. And I'm not doing it because TVED has become a fashionable term in the educational lexicon. I'm doing it because I understand that there is a meaningful and significant role for TVED in the economic development and prosperity of this country. Hydrophonics, upholstery and pattern drafting were the subjects of focus for this round of the Teacher Emotion Program. Minister Edwin thinks the initiative would help deal with the gaps within the public and private sectors for entrepreneurship. We have to create an environment and an atmosphere in St. Lucia that would give rise to entrepreneurship. We have to begin to equip our students in the schools at the secondary level. That would impact skills, that would make them employable, yes, in the private sector, but also give them an education and a training that can create them to believe in creating their own businesses. The continued shortfall on the island in certain skilled technical areas have become worrisome as many firms have had to search for skilled workers outside of St. Lucia. As part of its Tibet thrust, the Ministry of Education plans to deal with this issue through the transformation of four secondary schools on the island into model T-FET institutions. This, for permanent secretary in the Department of Education, Innovation and Vocational Training, Michelle Charles, is just the start. Transformation, however, is not an easy process. And even if we possess all of the financial resources to make the necessary changes, which we don't, the human resource is even more critical to the success of the proposed change. Having persons who possess not only the right mindset, but also the right skill set is of paramount importance. We cannot speak of graduating students who work in industry and by industry standards and using industry equipment when the instructors do not understand what this calls for. A similar number of teachers on the island are expected to benefit when the second component of the program rolls out in the coming year. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, I am Chris Satney, reporting.