A select group of high-achieving secondary school students across Barbados is on the cusp of launching their first formal work experience this month, capping off half a year of targeted skills training built to address a longstanding gap between classroom academic achievement and real-world employability. The 2024 cohort, drawn from 16 local secondary schools, has successfully completed the University of the West Indies (UWI) Global Campus Alumni Outreach Programme – officially titled *Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Challenges – Transforming Children’s Lives (PTFTC-TCL)* – and is gearing up for four-week private sector internships set to begin July 15. On Monday, participating students gathered for a comprehensive pre-internship orientation at the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex on UWI’s Cave Hill Campus, where they received detailed guidance on professional workplace expectations ahead of their placements with partner organizations.
Now marking its tenth anniversary, the PTFTC-TCL initiative was launched in response to a critical observation from regional educators: many students who excelled academically still lacked the soft interpersonal and professional skills required to smoothly transition from secondary school into the workforce. The six-month foundational curriculum covers a range of practical, job-focused competencies, including professional communication, workplace etiquette, financial literacy, interview preparation, leadership development, and core professional conduct.
Speaking at Monday’s orientation, Michael Chen, a programme representative for PTFTC-TCL and a former participant who parlayed his own internship into a permanent role at UWI Global Campus, congratulated students on earning their spot in the cohort after standing out throughout the training period. Chen explained that the orientation session was designed to demystify the private sector workplace for young participants, framing the pre-internship preparation as a critical step to set students up for success. “The main reason for today’s orientation is to teach you what is expected when you go into different companies and how to behave and what to expect,” he said.
Drawing on his own personal trajectory, Chen encouraged students to push past any initial nervousness about entering a professional environment, emphasizing that the experience would build lifelong habits. “After getting used to it you learn how to schedule yourself better, not to be late, how to be on time,” he noted, adding that the internship could open unplanned career pathways. “The internship is a good opportunity for you to learn and grow and this is a real work experience… You may even get the opportunity to stay on such as me. I stayed on with the Global Campus and I’ve been here for three years.”
Aryanne Williams, a member of the 2023 internship cohort who completed her placement at the Barbados Association of Retired Persons, shared her firsthand experience to help ease this year’s participants’ anxiety. Williams recalled that she entered her internship with significant trepidation, shaped by common anecdotes about difficult workplace interactions. “I was extremely nervous, extremely scared because I heard all the horror stories about… bad customers, people coming and shouting in your face,” she said. However, the experience far exceeded her expectations, thanks to supportive on-the-job mentorship that taught her practical customer service skills and conflict de-escalation. Working in the organization’s accounting department also solidified her long-term career goal of becoming a forensic accountant. Williams urged the 2024 cohort to make the most of the four-week opportunity: “This internship brought a lot of insight on the world of work, how to dress, how to behave and it was a really good opportunity… I believe that for this month of July… y’all will learn a great set and y’all will have a very good time.”
Sandra Griffith-Carrington, UWI Cave Hill Campus Officer of Alumni Relations, used the orientation to emphasize that employers evaluate far more than just task performance during internships. “You need to showcase that you have grown over the six months programme and you need to be able to meet people for the first time and have a conversation with them,” she told students. Griffith-Carrington noted that the programme has a mixed track record of outcomes: past participants have gone on to secure permanent roles through their internships, but others have left negative impressions on partner employers. “We have had some people who have gone on to have permanent jobs and we have had some others whom we got complaints about. And so I don’t want to get any complaints here,” she said.
Griffith-Carrington outlined core ground rules for the interns: arrive on time, maintain professional dress, limit personal mobile phone use during work hours, avoid office gossip, and communicate respectfully with supervisors and colleagues. She also stressed that asking for clarification is far preferable to completing a task incorrectly, noting that mistakes waste employers’ time and erode trust. “There is nothing wrong in asking. It is better that you ask me to explain something than you go on your own and do it and do it wrong because you would have wasted your employer’s time,” she said. She further encouraged students to demonstrate proactivity by seeking additional work once they complete assigned tasks, adding that initiative and consistent professionalism are key traits that employers notice and remember. For students hoping to secure full-time work after the internship, Griffith-Carrington advised them to leverage their connections: “Go to your teachers. Go to your principals… Let them know, ‘I’m ready to work. I have done PTFTC-TCL. I’m transformed. I need a job.’”