More than 40 High School students aged between 15 and 16, from all of Cayman’s high schools, attended the Chamber of Commerce’s Mentoring Cayman 2024 Educational & Careers Day on Friday, January 12 at the Chamber of Commerce Conference Room in Governor’s Square. The purpose of the Careers Day was to provide students with information about the different careers that are possible in Cayman, by inviting speakers representing a broad range of industries, professions, and educational establishments. Following each of the presentations, the students were able to interact with each of the presenters, asking plenty of questions about the careers that interested them the most.

Melissa Comparin, a human resource professional, began the day’s presentations by offering the students key tips on resume-writing, goal setting, and interview skills. It was something that all the students found very useful. 

One of those students, 16-year-old Madison Douglas who attends Clifton Hunter High School, said: “I took a lot in about how to write my resumes and my cover letters too and I found out how to promote myself, how to look and how to act when going to a job interview.” 

Clifton Hunter High School Student, Maria Campbell 15, said, “I am interested in marketing. Today I already learned how to format a resume and what to put in it, and to be more in-depth with your objective, instead of having a plain objective for your resume.” 

Like many other high school students, some had clear ideas of what they wanted, others were not so sure, but as the day unfolded, there was plenty for all the students to think about.

 “I’m not sure what I’d like to do yet,” said 15-year-old Dwight Ebanks Jr, a student at John Gray High School, “I am thinking about being a pilot or an engineer because they both seemed very interesting. I didn’t know how many fields engineering had, or all the different fields in becoming a pilot.” 

Philip Liu, Education Programme Coordinator with Tech Cayman told the students about the highly paid vacancies in computer programming that are regularly available here but are not easy to fill because young people here don’t have the correct skills. 

Dr. Vineetha Binoy, Senior Consultant with Health City Cayman Islands spoke about the rewards of working in the medical field: “This profession is unique in that no other profession can claim that they are directly improving the quality of life,” she said. 

One of the presenters during the morning was Miss Cayman World, Leanni Tibbetts, who is a pilot with Cayman Airways and is also a former Mentoring Cayman Mentee. She told the story of how her mentor, who worked in the HR department of a large hotel, was able to help her fulfill her ambition of becoming a pilot, even though she worked in a completely different area: “Because of her contacts, she was able to arrange interviews with pilots and got me an internship at Island Air, where I started my career as a pilot.” Leanni said. Leanni went on to study Aviation Management with Flight, and she became a pilot with Cayman Airways in 2022. 

Bruce Gordon, Creative Director at Zeal, a local video, and photography production company, spoke of different opportunities available in media production, inspiring the students with his own story of success, first in music after recording a song at the age of 16, before going on to establish Zeal. The hardest thing, he said, was starting, and overcoming all the negative thoughts about why you cannot achieve your dreams because you do not think that have all the knowledge and resources that you need. The best way of overcoming all those obstacles is to, “Just start,” he said.