The old Venus bus Terminal on Magazine Road used to be an eyesore; in fact, it was even a murder scene when the building fell into ruinous decay.
But, if you haven't noticed it recently, the old structure has been nicely refitted. It is now an Alternative Skills Training Education building - a part of the ministry of education's attempt to capture those thousands of youth who fall by the wayside between primary and secondary school.
It was opened today with an elaborate ceremony and Minister Patrick Faber told us how it fits in to the educational picture:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"Well it's a resource center, an institution that we hope to engage young people, primary who are at that upper primary, lower secondary, who are not in school anymore, and are looking for a positive alternatiive. As you know, the CET's turned into ITVET's and that started catering to a different level of students, primary highschool graduates, and it has left a void. At the time of the Restore Belize Initiative, I announced that we would start doing initiatives that would target some 1500 young people in that category, that are around Belize City and are being influenced by the negative force around Belize City. As you move around the building, you will see rooms that will offer programs in barbering, sewing, juice-making, hair-braiding, cosmetology, and one that we are very proud of is the music studio. You know that many of our young people are musically inclined; they want to be rappers, and singers but they may not have the technical knowledge and resources in order to properly produce this music. It's not in the buidling today; today we are just opening the building. We are hoping to officially offer the programs for the start of the new school year in September, and by then we will have this building properly outfitted with the equipment and machinery that is needed to offer such programs for our young people."
Initially, the program will accommodate 150 youths.
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