By: Fabian Belgrave
Forty-eight groundsmen in Barbados are now better prepared to carry out their job, after completing a four-week training course held by the National Sports Council (NSC).
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Yolande Howard, speaking at the graduation last evening at the Wildey Gymnasium, congratulated them on a job well done and emphasised the importance of training.
“Training and development is important. It helps us to get skills to be able to get a job, but it also helps us when we’re in a job to be better, to do better and to be the most competent at what we do,” she stated.
Mrs. Howard also urged the graduates to recognise that they are masters at what they do and to take the knowledge that they have gained and apply it to all aspects of their jobs and lives.
She also gave advice to the young men who completed the programme. “I want to impress upon you to take heed of what you have heard from the speakers here today. Take advantage of the opportunity to take that knowledge you have and apply it in the way in which you were taught and always, always seek to improve what you have learned and be the best and most competent groundsman that you can be, but at the same time, … when there are opportunities for you to go to another level, take the opportunities. Don’t let anyone believe that because you are a groundsman you cannot go higher because you can go higher,” she said.
Graduates and cousins Omarie and Dario Taitt were very excited about gaining their certificates. Omarie, a former cricketer for the Lester Vaughan and Melrose cricket team, stated that as a player he developed a love for the technical aspects of cricket and thought that the groundsman course would give him a better understanding of the game.
Dario, who isn’t a player of the game, said it provided him with the “opportunity to learn new things, and better myself and become a better version of myself everyday”.
While highlighting that he had no skills as a groundsman before the course, he added that now he is very proficient and has the confidence to follow up with other courses.
