“Do you know the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance?” Yolande de Castro asked a group of form four students at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall during the BVI Senior Students Career Expo and College Fair.

Ashley Penn was ready with an answer: “There’s the one that if you have $20 million and you just report that you make let’s say $1 million, and the rest goes unnamed, that will be illegal.”

Ms. Penn was among about a dozen students who gathered around a booth run by members of the Association of Registered Agents.

Though Ms. Penn hopes to practise criminal law, she finds financial matters interesting, she said.

Her enthusiasm is exactly what guidance counsellors like Sylvester Smith hope to see in the ESHS student body, Mr. Smith said.

“We’ve invited the third formers this year again so we can start early in getting all of our students aware of the careers available in the financial services,” he added. “We want to expose our kids to it so that they have an understanding of how it works.”

At the fair on Feb. 11, students walked among about 10 booths, speaking to professionals about the financial services industry. Other careers were highlighted the next day.

The four-day event started Feb. 10 with an assembly at the school, and it wrapped up last Thursday, when students met with representatives from several colleges and universities.

During the opening ceremony, Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn stressed the importance of financial services and tourism, subjects that recently were introduced in the high school curriculum.

“If you do not take an interest in these fields, our economy and our country will remain dependent on imported labour,” Mr. Walwyn said. “This means lucrative opportunities for success will continue to escape the hands of our local people.”

VI careers

Like Ms. Penn, several students seemed enthusiastic about VI careers. Felix Wollard, who hopes to become a prosecutor, was visiting the BVI Bar Association booth.

“Honestly, I just love the profession and I’d like to one day help people by putting the bad guys out of town,” Mr. Wollard said.

Apart from being the sergeant-at-arms of the ESHS Drama Society, Mr. Wollard is taking classes like English and history, which he said will help him progress toward his goal.

“If you can’t communicate properly or get along with your clients, it won’t help you or them in any way,” he said.

Mr. Wollard and many of his classmates already have a good understanding of how lawyers operate, said Brian Lacy, a representative of the BVIBA.

“It’s been incredibly busy. Plenty of them seem very interested in law,” he said. “They’ve been concerned about the pay. They want to know how much we earn. I am quite impressed with their knowledge.”

College fair

During the college fair last Thursday, students met with representatives from 20 universities and colleges and left “feeling encouraged,” Mr. Smith said.

For the second year, students from the Bregado Flax Educational Centre and Cedar International School attended.

Many of the representatives at the fair encouraged students to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test in addition to the Caribbean Examinations Council tests, the organiser added.

St. George’s University in Grenada attended the fair for the first time this year.

The four days of activities were themed “Tapping into Tomorrow by Preparing Today.”

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