Hundreds of sixth-formers benefit from JPS Foundation-funded CAPE/STEM workshop with UWI 

More than 1,000 sixth-form students set to sit this year’s CAPE exams saw their knowledge base in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-adjacent subjects significantly boosted while attending a weeklong series of workshops hosted last week at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.
The workshops, venued in Kingston and Montego Bay, were facilitated by the JPS Foundation in partnership with UWI through a $16-million, five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2023. Currently in their second year of activation, the annual workshops provided the secondary school participants from across the island with academic support in the form of lectures and laboratory activities, which were particularly welcome as many schools lack lab equipment required to complete internal assessments.

JPS Foundation Head, Sophia Lewis, was gratified by the measurable impact made on the targeted demographic who registered for the five-day run of workshops held at the UWI’s Faculty of Science and Technology. 
“It was an awesome experience,” she recounted. “Often when you do these kinds of initiatives, it can be physically demanding …but when you hear the questions the students had, and when you see their faces light up when something connected, it made it all worthwhile.”

Lewis vividly recalled an instance where a sixth-former directed a query to JPS President and CEO Hugh Grant following a presentation session at the university’s lecture theatre. “One question I remember clearly was when a Kingston College student told our President it was hard to relate to the content he was studying. It didn’t feel relevant. We engaged him and showed him that there are opportunities that he could benefit from, related to what he is learning – and connect it to real life,” she explained. “An example we used was our Foundation’s debating competitions among students in our Energy Clubs.  What the debating competition does, is enables students to use the areas they are studying to apply to the moot for the competition.  So there was a real-life application in just that conversation.”

The Foundation’s leading lady said “seeing the lightbulb moment, seeing them engaging with our team members, and seeing how impacted they were by listening and hearing the stories made it very meaningful for me.”
Held from January 6 to January 14, the CAPE/STEM workshops featured daily presentations from a number of JPS senior executives including the energy company’s president and CEO Hugh Grant; business development manager Richard Gordon; specialist engineer Vashawn Burnett; customer service area manager Janice Carr and customer care manager Patricia Beckord-Linton. 

The UWI CAPE STEM workshop series, Lewis pointed out, was an opportunity to start each year on a purposeful note for students across the country readying themselves for CAPE exams in Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Geography and Math.
 “As an energy company, we are very deliberate about our support of science and technology in Jamaica,” she said. “We have been having a decline in the interest and performance in STEM among our students in Jamaica over the years and the government has been implementing strategies to address the problem which could be a combination of lack of infrastructure for research and poor teaching methodologies at the primary and secondary levels.”

Continuing, Lewis said: “we are doing our part to address this problem by supporting excellent initiatives such as these workshops. Students benefit from more superior labs than they have at their schools and also the benefit of interacting with university lecturers. There is also another dimension to our participation which is very dear to us. We share information on how electricity is produced and the role of JPS. We share inspirational stories of JPS team members who from humble beginnings, use their love of STEM to make valuable contributions to the development of the country.”

The ongoing partnership between the JPS Foundation and UWI facilitates a reduction in the workshop price to sixth-form students, from potentially $5,000 to $1,500. The price will be fixed at $1,500 for the next three years.