Michael Stowe does not believe in meetings.Instead, he prefers to take action, like he did three years ago when he started the Technology Skills Center (TSC), an alternative high school programme for boys aged 15 to 18.As programme manager at the TSC, Mr Stowe said: “As a matter of practice, I do not take meetings, and the condition of me meeting with anyone is that a young man, by name, has to be the subject of the meeting.“I believe we have to be more proactive. I believe our work for the people of this Island, especially for our young males, has to be beyond meetings and talking. We have to get down to action and let them be the centre of our activity and you’ll be surprised how it transforms their lives.”Three years into providing education and training for young men in a small school setting, Mr Stowe is developing new ways to give his school a wider reach. Starting this year, the school will be rechristened the Bermuda Technical Training Centre to reflect an increased focus on practical, hands-on training.Currently, the high school education and technical training available at the school go hand in hand. But beginning this September, young men can come to the school for technical training alone, and then explore their options for general education.“We’re going to accept students here to do technical training without having to be an enrolled high school student,” Mr Stowe said. “They come here to do the technical stuff, and at the end of the technical training they can decide if they want to stay on for high school or if they want to go on and get a GED.“We’re going to be doing more in the future to prepare these high school students to make a seamless transition from here to the workplace. This is going to be a technical training centre specifically for the purposes of assisting them as what we call an employment solution.”The change emphasises Mr Stowe’s goal that “every student who finishes this programme moves into a postsecondary opportunity. They all leave here equipped to go to the next level”.Along with the technical training opportunities, Mr Stowe is also launching a small business, the Bermuda Small Engine Repair Service, which will be operated entirely by the students.“We put it through a test for about ten months, and these students are going to manage a small business, our engine repair business, which is a part of the school. The students will not only learn hands-on experience repairing engines, they’ll learn how a small business operates.”Beyond practical skills, the school also provides a complete high school education, but in a very different environment from a large public high school. The school has two instructors and around 18 students, giving it a nine to one student-to-teacher ratio. They do their work in a small building on Union Street with one classroom.For the students in the programme, this starkly different approach is exactly what allows them to succeed where they were unable to before.Terry Burgess, who earned his diploma in June, said “I applied after I didn’t finish at the Berkeley Institute, so I came here in September 2009.”He remarked that the programme allows “working at your own pace, so you do the test when you feel like you’re ready. You work at your own pace and that’s better than having to work towards a certain deadline”.Mr Stowe described this style as “self-paced, meaning that a student can move as fast as he can, there’s no competition”.Mr Burgess said the programme is great for “somebody who needs a little bit more focus time, just a little more time to get things done”.This Saturday, he will leave for DeVry University to begin working towards a bachelor of science degree with a focus on computer programming and technology.Christian Adair, a current student who was awarded the school’s Student Excellence Award yesterday, said he came “looking for a better education, one that’s more hands on, more for the individual rather than for everybody else”.Mr Adair commented that, compared to his experience at other schools, “it’s just easier to learn. The days are a lot shorter, with a lot smaller classrooms”.After he graduates in December, he hopes to take additional fitness and nutrition courses, with the end goal of becoming a personal trainer.Mr Adair’s mother Kim, said the school produced a very noticeable change in her son, both as a person and as a student.“He’s gone from a non-attentive student with no self-esteem, feeling in some sort of shadow to really blossoming,” Ms Adair said. “He’s very independent, he has so much more confidence. He’s been given a lot of tools here that have enabled him to come out of himself, which has been such a terrific change in Christian.“I highly recommend it for any child that’s having problems, or any child that needs hands-on, or who really is losing his way in school. At this school he gets full attention from all of the teachers at an individual pace which I think is just brilliant.“Both teachers are firm, they’re very good, they’re very attentive to the students, and I’m thankful for that because that is why Christian is where he is now.”Mr Stowe said seeing students make so much progress encourages him to continue improving the programme.“I get a real sense of satisfaction through students like Mr Adair and Mr Burgess. I’m very encouraged that seven men have finished the programme, and three will finish by December, but there have been those who have dropped out and I think we still have to go back and review and reassess why we lose any number of students.”But no setbacks have managed to dull Mr Stowe’s enthusiasm for taking action to deal with problems.“My passion for it is that it makes a difference. I don’t think there is a single day that I leave home without anticipation of what this day is going to be about.”