Congratulations to all of this year’s graduates. We hope the entire community will rally together to celebrate their accomplishments and help to ease their coming transitions.
In many respects, the Class of 2017 is lucky. Its members are graduating at a time when the world economy is finally returning to pre-recession levels. For VI graduates, this is good news indeed considering the local job market’s heavy dependence on global economic factors beyond the territory’s control.
Nevertheless, continued stability abroad is by no means assured: Britain is in a particularly turbulent phase after last week’s election, and United States President Donald Trump is anything but predictable, to name two looming issues.
Moreover, many local challenges remain. The VI’s financial services industry, for instance, has struggled in recent months, with new company incorporations trending steadily downward. This development should warn recent graduates that the days of plentiful desk jobs in the industry might be over.
The territory’s other major economic pillar — tourism — is healthier. Last year, the VI saw a record number of visitors, with the total numbers exceeding one million for the first time. Many good tourism jobs are ripe for industrious youngsters with even two years of focused tertiary education.
There are plenty of other VI employment options for young people as well, including an expanding health care industry, a technology sector that needs computer-savvy workers, and various programmes for budding entrepreneurs.
Graduates who want to further their education have a growing list of opportunities through the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, and the government also offers scholarships for study abroad.
Qualified Virgin Islanders and other belongers, who can attend HLSCC for free, also have another important privilege: The law requires that they get first pick of jobs in the territory.
Graduates should take full advantage of the available opportunities. However, they should not expect a free ride. On the contrary, in this increasingly globalised economy, they should expect to compete with top-level employees from around the world.
This means that they likely will have to start at the bottom and work their way up. But there is no shame in that, and we have every confidence that with diligence and perseverance they will succeed.
We wish them all the luck in the world.
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