Craft Production and Design Division hosts “Open Day”

The Craft Production and Design Division of the Ministry of Education hosted its “Open Day” today. The school focuses primarily on providing students with skills to create craft items which allows them an opportunity to gain employment or become entrepreneurs. 

Administrator of the school, Ms. Kim Gordon, said that the institution caters primarily for early school leavers. She said, “Despite it is a practical institution, we also do academics, English, mathematics, social studies, life skills, reading, information technology and small business management.”

As an educator at the school, Ms. Gordon said that she is happy knowing that the lives of young people can be impacted positively through the skills and knowledge being taught to them by herself and teachers within the institution.

She said that all the items on display were made by the students. They included clothing articles such as skirts and dresses in various designs and made from different types of fabric. There were also craft items such as hand bands, decorative bottles, baskets, floral arrangements, candle holders, crochet pieces, woven and macramé pieces and tie-dyed garments.

Ms. Gordon said that the Open Day is timely since the institution is currently going through its enrolment process for the new school year. The exhibits at today’s Open Day were displayed in the school’s showroom and within the respective subject classrooms.

The objectives of the institution are to provide students with handicraft skills for production on the local and international markets, aid in boosting students’ input to the tourism industry, productively utilize indigenous materials and re-usable material, generate and produce new creative designs in handicraft and to market handicraft material through self-employment.

Areas of study at craft are surface decoration, fibre arts, leather craft, landscaping and decorative craft which all fall under visual arts. Under garment construction, the areas of study are fashion and textile designing, children clothing, baby apparel and pattern drafting.