seen in the conspicuous absence of qualified Bermudian tradesmen in local industries today.

"I think a school like Tech is sorely missed because there is no school around today that is producing people to go into the trade industries, although the guys who went into the garages from Tech didn't stay as mechanics for the rest of their lives.

"Every one of those guys who came out of Tech may have gone in as apprentices, but they were soon the managers of the departments and the bosses running the offices. You'll find that throughout the various garages in Bermuda. This was because of their academic grounding, as well as the vocational training they received. So, I think that type of school is definitely needed and I highly recommend that we have a technical school again on the Island.'' Pedro, who is senior Vice President of Olympia Capital International, Inc., an investment management company, and also holds the titles of president and general manager of other similar corporate concerns, believes that the school may have been ahead of its time.

"Basically, when the school started, they may have been looking for people who were mechanically inclined. I don't know whether it was an experiment or whether they wanted blue collar workers to come out of the school, but most ofthe guys I went to school with were extremely bright and had higher aspirations that that,'' he explains.

"We had great teachers and I think it surprised a lot of people the type of academic expertise that came out of the school. It was amazing the amount of kids who were doing GCEs and going the academic route while picking up trades on the side.'' In fact, according to Pedro, that was one of the unique aspects of Technical that originally attracted him to the school.

"I liked the idea of learning a trade, while you were learning academics.

Also, as far as the trades were concerned, we were learning the theory and having an opportunity to apply the practical. We learned electrical work, how to lay block, how to plaster walls and most of the things at the school were built by the students. We built a couple of the labs in the back of the school, mixed the concrete, poured the floor and laid the block. Although we didn't put the roofs on, we took the block up to wall plate. We not only learned something, but we had an opportunity to put it into practice.'' Pedro claims that those skills he learned at Tech have served him well.

"It's been useful to me right up until today because owning a house, I've been building on and I lay my own block, do my own electrical and my own plastering. I do everything myself and it's all the stuff I learned at Technical.

I'm a professional who's not afraid to get his hands dirty!'' No caption.

SEPTEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE