Mercy Corps exposes 205 students to job skills

Professionals invited by Mercy Corps from diverse career areas have exposed 205 graduating senior students from the Monrovia Vocational Training Center (MVTC) in Gardnerville to “job – readiness – information”, encouraging them to do practical things that add to their skills.

The interactive Career Fair held on Friday, 18 August was sponsored by ExxonMobil through the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) and implemented by Mercy Corp as one of the latter’s programs that it has been undertaking here since 2015.

At the end of a seven – day training for the 205 graduating senior students at MVTC, Mercy Corps Country Director Douglas Cooper told journalists that Mercy Corps invited professionals to speak with the young people and share their experiences as a means of motivating them to start a journey in their career.

Mr. Cooper says the interaction is meant to expose students in their areas of studies in many ways, such as providing them job – readiness – information, applications, interviews and practical things that they need to do to add to their skills in their fields of study.

The Mercy Corps official concludes that the program works specifically with youth that are finding ways to make a good living.

The students are trained in areas including carpentry, masonry, computer, electricity, plumbing and welding, among others.

They received motivational accounts from Mr. Samuel B. Jippy who runs a Welding and Fabrication center at 72nd Road, carpenter John Morris of the Charbural Enterprise on Somalia Drive, Mr. Roland V. Kranto, CEO of Roland Electrical Millennium Inc., and Mr. Meek Johnson, a specialist in refrigeration and aircondition works, among others.

Career Fair Committee Chair Mr. Stanley Karmo encouraged the students to pay keen attention to the speakers in order to benefit from their presentations.

In his presentation, Mr. Samuel B. Jippy, a welding and fabrication specialist says while pondering over what to do after he graduated from high school, his father established a welding shop in 2010 and encouraged him to get on board and learn in the shop.

While encouraging the students to pursue formal education, Mr. Jippy also argues that training one’s mind to do what is ought to be done outside of formal education is still an education in a specific area.

He tells students that there will always be challenges on the job, but they need to exercise patience to know what they are learning, and master their working tools in order to be marketable.

As for the second presenter, carpenter John Morris, he says people can get into a particular trade either by inheriting it, being inspired by others or by admiring people who are already into a particular field.

He says he was lucky to be picked by his late uncle to learn in a carpenter shop during his schooldays, and his uncle would even refuse to give him food if he (Morris) was complained of not performing certain tasks assigned to him in the carpenter shop. –By Winston W. Parley