Vava’u High School Students empowered to seek jobs and do business in sustainable energy

More than 30 form 7 students at the Vava’u High School participated in a promotional lecture led jointly by the Department of Energy and the PCREEE on 18th July 2019 to raise the students’ awareness and interest on pursuing further studies and job and business opportunities on sustainable energy. The lecture has a theory and practical component as well as a competition component to test the students’ understanding and effectiveness of the lecture.

Fig 1: Lecture by PCREEE staff

The lecture was raising awareness on the PCREEE’s roles and areas of collaboration within the PICTs including the Department of Energy in pursuing the Tonga Energy Road Map (TERM) and energy target of 50% by 2020. Increase the level of knowledge and promote renewable energy technology and energy efficiency appliance and its impacts to mitigate GHG emission and to fight against climate change. Introducing of business and employment opportunities on sustainable energy for the students to pursue it in their future education and career path, to strengthen our local energy sectors.

“This is a very good opportunity that we did not see it coming, and there cannot be a better time to broaden the scope of these students especially with the numerous projects happening around us. These form 7 students, will continue to technical and tertiary studies next year, some will look for jobs and this lecture has added a new dimension on the choices that are available to them”, said Ms Taina Kalavi IT teacher, Vava’u High School.

“I thank the PCREEE and DoE team for this opportunity. It kind of given me a clear direction on what to pursue as my future career. The millions of dollars of investments in the energy sector now will only continue to grow in the future and they are promising opportunities for us young people.” said Head Boy  of Vava’u High School.

Furthermore, the practical session followed with a rigorous explanation of RE and demonstration on the EE examples. Due to time limitations, only one student was asked to interact with the demonstration and conveyed the readings to the whole group so all can participate to calculate the potential savings on replacing inefficient appliances with energy efficient appliances and equipment.

Finally, in order to measure the effectiveness of the presentation with respect to the understanding of the students, 3 questions were asked based on the presentation. All questions were answered well below 3 minutes which implied that most students have learned something new and have understood. All 3 winners, 1 boy and 2 girls received a prize.  

Fig 2: A student interacting with DoE and PCREEE staff on the EE.

“This lecture brings firsthand experience for the senior science student to explore more on RE and EE and we are willing to participate in the PCREEE’s competition on RE and EE innovation” said Mele Lupe Tulikihakau, Form 7 Science teacher.

About Us:

The PCREEE is hosted by the Pacific Community (SPC) at Nuku’alofa, Tonga and is a regional entity working specifically to accelerate the Pacific Islands’ transition to renewable energy and energy efficient economies. The centre is part of wider SDG-7 multi-stakeholder partnership which aims at the establishment of a network of regional sustainable energy centres for small island developing states (SIDS) in Africa, Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean. 

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