The first ever vocational course to be held in Gibraltar’s Comprehensive Schools started last week. This will bring a wide range of vocational courses as options for students in the Comprehensive Schools.

Details have only just been announced, but the first course has already started.

No fewer than 25 Year 10 students, both boys and girls, from Bayside and Westside Schools have taken the option of the course, a City & Guilds Level 2 in Hair and Beauty Studies.

These courses will be tailored to suit industry, and teaching will be carried out at the Comprehensive Schools both by teachers and instructors from the relevant trades. The current course is being delivered by qualified staff from Mayfair on Main, who were selected by the Department of Education in a competitive process.

Announcing the start of the course, Minister for Education John Cortes revealed that representatives from City & Guilds were in Gibraltar recently and have now formally recognised Gibraltar’s educational establishments as approved centres and have also confirmed qualification approval.

More courses will start in coming months including a level 2 technical award in Digital Technologies.

These vocational courses are coordinated by newly appointed vocational coordinators in the schools, Martin Gilfillan and Zoe Zammit, and are designed to give opportunities to young people who want to gain different skills and follow different careers or who would otherwise have left school at an earlier age.

Commenting on the development, Minister John Cortes said, “I am delighted that our first ever vocational course has had such an uptake and that 25 young people have taken it up and are enjoying it thoroughly."