CXC Engages Youth in Second Chance at Education via ‘True Talk’ Video

(EMU) – St. Kitts, Aug 20, 2013: Youths between the ages of 16 to 30 years old in St Kitts and Nevis are being invited by CXC to join their regional counterparts in submitting a 60 second video which will share how a second chance at education will help them achieve their goals in life.

Examinations Officer Solomon Claxton said this is a welcome next step following the recent announcement by CXC that the Advanced Vocational and Educational Centre (AVEC) had been identified as a Second Chance Institution.

He said the invitation for youth to get involved in helping promote the programme is significant.

“True Talk”, is an avenue CXC hopes to use in collaboration with Second Chance stakeholders to give youth an opportunity to express themselves via the creation of the video. The video will feature their views on what they want to be and where they want to go in life; linking their dreams to the pursuit of their education.

The Second Chance Programme is a USD$ 4.2 million initiative over three years and will primarily target “at-risk” youths 16-35 years old across nine Caribbean territories, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

A release from CXC revealed that “At-risk” youth are persons who have experienced poor life outcomes in general. These include but are not limited to school failure; teenage parenthood; economic dependency, drug use or incarceration because of poverty and/or crime; low levels of English proficiency; poor school performance; male marginalization; physical disabilities; unemployment and underemployment.

Further information on the rules of the video competition is available at 2ndchance.cxc.org. Youths are also being asked to like 2ndchance at facebook.com/2ndchanceprogramme.

It is expected to be offered at Second Chance Institutions (SCIs) in the nine territories at the start of the next school year, September 2013.

Additional Information

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) in association with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially launched The Strengthening Second Chance Education Programme (Second Chance) on Tuesday 19 March 2013.

The goal of the Strengthening Second Chance Education Programme is to build a sustainable infrastructure that will allow at risk groups to access programmes that may lead to the development of valuable life skills, training/retraining for the world of work, portable certification, and a continuing education platform for future development.

The programme will provide a tangible element in the form of the CXC’s Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ®) Levels 1 and 2, and the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC®) to those who successfully complete their programmes.