Over the weekend at Du-Port Road Baptist Field, cheerful students who graduated from the Thomas’ Foundation Vocational School and their loved ones got a life-changing exhortation to use as a recipe for moral standard in the society.
“Before I close, don’t use your skills to corrupt the system, breakdown our economy and make your parents shame,” keynote speaker, Dr. Isaac Peter, Sr., said, as he pointed his finger at the graduating class and those who attended the program.
His stern warning is in response to atrocities worldwide as a result of skillful people’s invention of diseases and deadly weapons, and widespread corruption in the human system. For instance, Ebola virus which affected Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Lone in 2014 was allegedly invented by educated people; likewise, allegedly Covid-19, which has ransacked the world economy for years, and so on.
The fifth graduation exercise of the vocational school, which was established in 2013, put out 4,500 graduates from various disciplines on Saturday. Montserrado County’s district #4 Representative-elect, Michael M. Thomas, the founder of the school was in attendance with his wife Tarina Thomas, defeated representative-candidates of the same district, Montserrado County’s district #6 Representative-elect Samuel Enders, parents and loved ones of the graduates, among others.
The keynote speaker, who spoke on theme, “The Power of Technical Vocational Education: Using what You Have To Get What You Want”, said technical vocational education (TVET) refers to all forms and levels of education and training which provides knowledge to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life through formal and informal learning methods in both school-based and work-based learning.
“It is the type of education or training designed for preparing individual learners to contribute toward the growth and development of our nation,” he said. “TVET can help to fill the skills gap in the job market. It can lead to a wide-range of career opportunists and facilitate lifelong learning and development.”
He told the graduates to use their skills acquired from the Michael M. Thomas’ Foundation to bring pride to their families, nation and the world at large.
“…For Liberia to be that well-developed country you desire it to be greatly rest upon your shoulders. Change begins with an individual, and I am seeing all of you here today as those agents of positive change that Liberians need and can depend on it moving our country to the next and better level,” Dr. Peter said.
Tarina Thomas, who historicized the formation of the school, its challenges and successes, was cheered by a band parade by some of the graduates—making her proud, for a cordial relationship between her and the teachers and students—as she presented the graduates to Representative-elect Thomas.
The school graduated 4,500 students from various technical disciples, including plumbing, beauty-care, soap making, electricity, catering, among others.
Giving the graduates’ hope in the job market and how beneficial it is to be skillful, Representative-elect Thomas said, “You don’t have to be a master’s degree holder to earn a living; you don’t have to be a doctorate degree holder to use your hand to cater to your family.”
He continued that education is not merely about academic excellence; it is about empowering young people and preparing them for the job market.
He thanked the graduates, prospective graduates, students, and citizens of the district for electing him as their representative-elect, and defined vocational education, saying it instils a sense of purpose and self-reliance among “our young people, mothers, elders” in several technical and vocational capacities.
He pointed out that the foundation has secured a property for the advancement of the technical school, and promised to extend it districtwide.
Earlier, Representative-elect Enders told the graduates that they are light to shine in darkness, that is eating up Liberia’s moral fabric. He said they should be independent of their affairs in the society, and they are bridge to unite the country from immoral to moral, which is quenching the progressive light of Liberia and it citizens. In the end, he gave L$188,000 to the vocational school as his support to human development through technical skills.
Three defeated representative-candidates who contested the 2023 elections in Montserrado County’s district #4, pledged their support to work with Representative-elect Thomas in unity to move the district forward.