TVET, skills, creativity & ideas into opportunity

The 2026 TVET Fair and Exposition offers a compelling reminder that education becomes most powerful when knowledge is translated into practical ability, creativity, and opportunity. Themed “From Classroom to Career: TVET in Action”, the event has placed the skills, ideas, and entrepreneurial ambitions of students at the centre of attention.
With 58 exhibitors participating, the exposition provides a valuable platform for students to demonstrate that technical and vocational education extends far beyond traditional perceptions of manual training. The displays reveal young people applying creativity, problem-solving, discipline, and business thinking to skills capable of generating income and contributing to wider economic activity.
The experience of Cummings Lodge Secondary School student Jencia Komal is particularly instructive. Through training and personal creativity, Komal has developed a business producing Gel-X press-on nails, combining artistic ability with practical knowledge and entrepreneurial initiative. The enterprise demonstrates how a skill acquired through education can be developed into a commercial service.
The significance extends way beyond the finished product, as building a business while pursuing education requires organisation, time management and commitment. Komal’s account of maintaining a schedule to balance schoolwork, personal time and her nail business demonstrates that TVET can help develop habits essential for success in the workplace and in entrepreneurship.
Another Cummings Lodge Secondary School student, Uche Wehgae, has similarly demonstrated how vocational skills can be transformed into a business concept. Her beauty kits, featuring products such as body wash and scrubs, reflect an understanding of consumer needs, presentation and convenience. Growing orders provide an early indication of how a student’s skills and interests can develop into an income-generating venture.
Such examples challenge the notion that academic achievement and vocational competence occupy separate worlds. Modern economies require people capable of designing, building, repairing, producing, creating and marketing. The ability to identify a need and develop a product or service to meet that need is equally valuable.
The strength of the TVET model lies in its capacity to connect education with real-world application. Students are not merely acquiring certificates; they are developing competencies that can be applied in construction, electrical installation, agriculture, food processing, aquaculture, automotive repair, garment making, beauty services, and numerous other fields.
Education Minister Sonia Parag said nearly half of the students who wrote the 2026 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations pursued at least one TVET subject, representing an increase of 8.9 per cent. Some 2813 students are expected to receive Caribbean Vocational Qualification certificates this year.
Those figures point to a changing appreciation of technical education. A vocational qualification can provide a pathway into employment, further training or entrepreneurship. More importantly, practical competence can provide young people with the foundation to create opportunities rather than depend exclusively on conventional employment.
The growing emphasis on entrepreneurship is particularly relevant. A student who transforms a practical skill into a viable business gains more than technical competence. Such a student begins to understand pricing, customer service, product development, time management, marketing and financial responsibility. These are transferable skills with value across virtually every sector.
The planned expansion of TVET access is therefore an important component of the broader development of the education system.
The most encouraging feature of the 2026 exposition is the students themselves. Their work demonstrates that practical education can cultivate creativity, confidence and enterprise while preparing a generation for an economy increasingly driven by skills and innovation.
“From Classroom to Career” captures the essential purpose of education that equips young people to apply knowledge, solve problems, create products, establish businesses and contribute meaningfully to national development.