More than 2,000 standard-five students from schools across Trinidad benefited this week from a motivational workshop hosted by Eastern Credit Union (ECU).
The event, which is in its 25th year, was held at the La Joya Sporting complex indoor basketball court.
The five-day long event began on Monday with different schools in attendance each day.
ECU Deputy CEO Kester Lashley told Newsday the workshop was about recognising the stressful time facing the students in preparation for the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination and also helping them transition from primary school to secondary school.
“This is part of learning and is part of preparation for the exam. So this is just a period where they could come here, they could relax, they could be exposed to some motivational talk. Some people will speak from different backgrounds who might be psychologists, or working with youth at risk and really helping them in that transition from the primary school to the secondary school.”
Lashley said he felt ECU had a responsibility to the national community to host the workshop.
“It is important to give back to the community. This is an organisation that is comprised of members and these are either members or potential members. These children are the future and certainly at this organisation we will do all that we can to assist the youth in the society who could become members and be part owners of this organisation.”
Lashley added it was important as well that ECU also did its part in teaching children something not always taught in schools – the importance of financial literacy.
He said ECU has reactivated its outreach programme in which it partners with schools throughout the country to teach children about the importance of saving.
[caption id="attachment_1067204" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Michael Sennon and Dale Delicia, representatives of NGO, Vision on Mission, invites students to make contributions on the topic of bullying and its consequences at Eastern Credit Union's SEA Motivational Workshop at La Joya Complex, St Joseph on Friday. - Faith Ayoung[/caption]
“We have officers who go out to schools. They will talk to children about financial management and they may set up certain days where they will go to the schools to have children potentially sign up and also to collect the money.”
“It's about saving and the importance of saving. So that is why we partner with a number of schools. We will go to their career fair. We'll do different activities with them. We'll have persons go to the schools and talk to the children about financial management. And it's not a lecture, it's conversing with them in a manner that they could understand.”
Lashley said the workshop was just part of one of the strategies at ECU in terms of encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation in youths.
St Patrick’s Newtown Girls RC teacher Michelle Rochford said she believed events of that nature were beneficial for students leaving primary school and about to enter secondary school.
“The environment in secon
