Adelphi skills training centre making its mark

The HEART Trust Skills Training Centre in Adelphi, St James, has been providing learning and training opportunities to the community since 1992.

Allison Evans, who has been the centreís coordinator since 1996, told Western Star that the facility originally served as a community centre, where persons received unofficial skills training.

"We take students from in and around the community. We have persons from Somerton, Dumfries, Content, Goodwill, Sign, Orange, Montego Bay, Norwood, and Salt Spring (all in St James), and from Wakefield and Falmouth in Trelawny," she said.

The Adelphi Centre currently offers courses in plumbing and housekeeping, and there are plans to expand the facility to include food-and-beverage training.

However, one of the challenges is the low attendance rate of students.

"The attendance rate is about 70 per cent, which is not very low, but in terms of the training and HEART TRUST standard, it should be 90 per cent attendance," said Evans. "One of the major issues is the financial constraints that some might have in terms of finding fare to come to school and for lunch because we donít offer lunch to the trainees."

Despite the attendance issue, the centre continues to make its mark on the  community as past student Toni-Ann Phang can testify.

"I live a minute away from the institution, so I decided to come and ask questions about the courses they had, and I decided to do the housekeeping course," said Phang. ìIt was a very challenging course, and it was also fun. The teachers are very good."