To make Liberians independent of their affairs and contribute to society, especially the youthful population, the Michael Thomas Vocational Technical School in Montserrado County’s district #4 recently graduated 3,840 students in varied skills; writes Ojuku Silver-tongue Kangar, Jr.
The vocational school at Dup-Port Road Baptist Field, which offers several disciplines, has two annexes: one at the Soul Clinic community and the other at the FDA community, impacting Liberians and other nationals with lifetime skills.
The school operates on a six-month basis and graduates students who meet all the requirements within that prescribed time.
“Just six months, you are here proudly walking from the walls of the Thomas’ Foundation Vocational School with certificates and diplomas in several disciplines today,” Atty. Michael M. Thomas, CEO of the school, said as he served as a guest speaker on the institution’s second graduation ceremony held on Friday. “It is joy that it brings to us.”
The school offers plumbing, electricity, soap making, cosmetology, bio gas, and so on, and is tuition free. Last year the school’s first graduation, held on the Baptist Field, graduated over one thousand students in diverse disciplines, and the second one has doubled the number.
“Today, we are graduating 3,840 students from different disciplines, who will be independent and offer skills to our society and the world at large,” Thomas said with authority.
The graduates were told to exert the skills they have learned so that they may have impact on the society, and not sit down adamant as others are doing, with their education making no impact on their lives and the society.
“As you all graduate and walk out of the Thomas Vocational Technical School, always keep the task burning; what you have learned today should not be burned, but be a tool to explore yourselves. You should network to form your own firm or company,” Thomas charged the graduates. He told them to do exploit in their field of professionalism. “Increase the productivity of workers. Tomorrow, when we walk across the streets we should see our people making incredible marks in the length and breadth of our own community. You stand against all odds in the society. With your commitment, you are part of that changing world that we all are yarning for.”
As education fights ills in the society and transforms people to act morally, guest speaker Thomas challenged the graduates to raise their voices against the society’s nuisances, which include, rape, sexual and gender-based violence, drug abuse, corruption, and so on.
The school’s Founder, Tarena T. Thomas, wife of Michael Thomas, thanked the students for their courage and determination to defy every hindrance to their education and complete every course and graduate. But she said she is transfixed with frustration seeing youthful Liberians falling prey to narcotic drugs, and vowed to do massive recruitment from ghetto to ghetto and community to community in order to flood the school with students who would double last year’s enrollment and this year graduation’s number.
“I want to see more young people in this school next period. Seeing our would-be leaders falling prey to drugs, prostitution, and other bad habit, pains me a lot. Therefore, we will do more mobilization this time to recruit several students,” Thomas said with compassion.
The students who displayed their achieved vocational talents thanked the Thomas Foundation for offering them skills that will benefit them for live, and vowed to make maximum use of them in the society and the world at large.
The vocational school was founded in 2019, and partners with other schools to impact the society, especially the citizens of district #4. Apart from the technical school, it offers medical service to vulnerable Liberians.
