Lakeisha King has learned quite a lot about her dream job recently: Being a pastry chef is fun, but it’s not easy.
“Sometimes it is a little stressful. You have to be mindful of the oven,” said Ms. King, a fourth form student at Elmore Stoutt High School.
As an intern at Chef Mac’s Live Well Bakery, one of Ms. King’s tasks on Friday was to bake a strawberry cake.
“I thought I would just watch, but I am actually doing work. My hours are from 8:30 to 4, Mondays to Fridays,” she said.
‘Passion’ for work
The experience Ms. King gets in her month-long internship this summer will help her in her quest to become a pastry chef. The passion she brings to the profession is a good start, according to Helen Williams, a pastry chef at the bakery.
“She is very eager to learn and is very interested in her work,” Ms. Williams said of Ms. King. “She wants to learn and do things. She has a passion for it.”
Ms. Williams has worked with more than a dozen interns, she said, adding that some of them are now pastry chefs who own businesses. “It is very important to have internships, so when we, the older ones, move on, there will be people to take on our jobs,” Ms. Williams said.
Ms. King is one of nearly 130 ESHS students participating in internships this summer, according to Sylvester Smith, a guidance counsellor at the school.
The internship programme began more than two decades ago, he explained. The students are placed at businesses and government departments across the territory.
“It started with students who were getting ready to graduate. And the counsellors working with them at the time saw the need to have them get ready for the world of work,” Mr. Smith said.
The initiative has continued ever since, with some students interning in July and others in August, Mr. Smith said. Over the years some students have left high school and have gone to take up employment opportunities at the companies for which they interned, according to the counsellor.
Legal intern
While Ms. King was busy making cakes, Akayla Hodge was a few blocks down Main Street, learning about the territory’s judicial system at the High Court Registry. She hopes one day to be a lawyer, but she is spending this summer filing documents and learning more about what lawyers do.
“This is kind of scaring me. They have to know a lot of stuff. It has changed my mind a bit but I still want to do it,” Ms. Hodge said. “I like being in the courts and listening to the cases. I like the criminal court because it is more interesting.”
She has attended several court sittings since she began the programme.
“My first experience in the court was interesting. I didn’t know what to expect,” Ms. Hodge said, adding that after her exposure, she’s leaning toward becoming a defence attorney. “It is just the challenge of trying to win the case. My favourite thing is the back and forth between the lawyers.”
Intern evaluation
The interns’ employers will evaluate the students’ performance and complete a job-training booklet that considers the students’ time management and attitude towards work, said Mr. Smith, the guidance counsellor.
At the beginning of the school year, the students who successfully complete the summer programme will receive certificates for their achievements. The internship programme may soon become a requirement for graduation, he added.
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