As the world is shifting from complaint to solution finding, the Thomas Foundation has empowered several Liberians with vocational skills to solve employment problems; writes Ojuku Silver-tongue Kangar, Jr.
Vocational education prepares people to work as technicians or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as tradespersons or artisans. Vocational education is given to an individual to prepare him or her to be gainfully employed or self-employed with requisite skills.
The Thomas Foundation Vocational Training Institute (TFVTI), which is tuition-free, combined the graduation ceremony of students of Soul Clinic Community and Du-Port Road branch on the Baptist Field on Saturday. It graduated 1,150 students in various disciplines, ranging from plumbing, electricity, catering, tailoring, soap making to beauty care, interior decoration and 3-D.
Displaying their skills to the public, every department exhibited a project as a sign of the skills achieved at the technical school.
“Michael Thomas says if you don’t have money you can go to school,” the graduates sang joyfully, as they appreciated the foundation.
The graduation scene roiled with people: pesky curiosity seekers, bike riders, the foundation loyalists, graduates, invitees, journalists, and so on, whose presence made the occasion unique. Appreciating their instructors for the knowledge acquired, the graduates pinned them with flowers, candies, money and held some on their shoulders and walked in the jubilant crowd.
As graduation ends a chapter of one’s life and starts a new exciting one, the graduates displayed items produced by themselves, and promised to apply their skills in Liberia and the world at large, refraining from the dependency syndrome and controling their affairs.
The foundation, which began its name, “Divine Technology Foundation” in 2009 by Terena Thomas, wife of Michael Thomas, with the sole purpose of educating Liberian children and those with the quest for education but could not because of financial constraint. It transformed into TFVTI in 2016 and 2017, according to Johnson Weah, the foundation’s school administrator. As the citizens of the district’s pursuit for vocational education increased, Soul Clinic vocational school was established, followed by Du-Port Road, which has had an impact on a thousand-plus Liberians and other nationalities. As the school resumes normal activities on both campuses in September, its third annex construction is underway in Whenn Town, around FDA head office, and will start operation with the current branches, according to Atty. Michael Thomas, an executive of the foundation.