Primary school boys get taste of tourism industry

As part of ongoing Male Week celebrations, boys at Eagle Hall Primary School have been given a glimpse into the hospitality industry. 

When a Barbados TODAY team visited the school on Tuesday, students were observed working with their teachers and other male mentors to prepare food and drinks for their second annual brunch, which has become a fixture of the Male Week celebrations.

Renaldo Gilkes, chairman of the 2024 Eagle Hall Male Week celebrations, said the initiative, which began last year, came out of a conversation among the male teachers who were aware the boys needed extra guidance outside the normal classroom setting.

He said this year’s theme, centering around tourism and hospitality, was seen as an important step in exposing the young students to the endless possibilities for jobs within the sector.

“This year our theme is Today’s Boys, Tomorrow’s Tourism Stars,” he said. “This year we are showing appreciation and recognition for the tourism industry, because we do recognise [it’s] the number one industry in the country, for both social and economic reasons, and it’s a viable industry for many males. We have a number of males who are outstanding practitioners within the hospitality field.”

Gilkes mentioned the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s chief executive officer Ryan Forde who, the previous day, had encouraged the students “to utilise their academic experiences to marry with their skills, so that they can create a meaningful career”.

The organiser said the students not only got to enjoy food and beverages but the opportunity to prepare them. Some boys worked as chef assistants, mixologist assistants, servers and hosts.

Gilkes, who thanked sponsors such as the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Limited (BPWCCUL), Bryden Stokes Limited, MASSY Distribution, Crumbz Bakery and others, said the plan was to expand the exercise next year, with the involvement of other schools.

“There is something in the framework where we just don’t want to limit it to Eagle Hall Primary School; we recognise that there are some other schools that have done something similar, and we would like to align ourselves with them, form our own little unit and family of a Male Week committee across the schools; that way we can have a greater impact. Initially, we recognised we had challenges at Eagle Hall but our challenges are not isolated. So if we could merge with others, perhaps we could make our impact and our reach greater for males to enjoy.” (SB)