On Friday, Future Job Skills of Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization based in St. Croix, will close out their first pre-apprenticeship program where students had a chance to learn skills related to golf course maintenance.
Future Job Skills of Tomorrow is a pre-apprenticeship program that focuses on training young people on a pathway into a paid apprenticeship program. It was conceptualized by its director, Rueben Fenton, two years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It started during COVID, playing with the idea. And then after COVID, [I] decided to put pen to paper and start establishing Future Job Skills of Tomorrow,” said Fenton.
The golf course maintenance is the pilot program for the organization and is called the 2024 Golf Course Maintenance, Preparation/Job Shadowing Training Program. Three high school students in tenth and eleventh grades on the island stayed committed to learning about golf course maintenance, skills that Fenton said are a part of a “$100 billion dollar industry.” At 11:30 am Friday, there will be a closeout presentation for the trainees at the Carambola Country Club and Golf Course to celebrate their success.
Participants underwent a five-week golf course maintenance study at the Reef Golf Course and the Carambola where they worked on maintaining 9 and 18-hole golf courses, respectively. Fenton said they learned about various aspects of golf course maintenance to include plumbing, irrigation systems, water distribution, stewardship, pesticides, turf agronomics, landscaping, and management. From Monday-Thursday, participants would engage in the field. On Fridays, they would have financial literacy career readiness during classroom sessions where guest speakers from the Bank of St. Croix, First Bank, Merchants Bank, and Oriental Bank would make presentations to the students.
“We’re exposing high school students to the job that’s available on the golf course itself. You have a lot of areas that you have to do to get the greens,” said Fenton.
Fenton said that he is currently working on expanding the golf course maintenance program with the Reef, Carambola, and the Buccaneer Beach and Golf Resort and anticipates having more resources for the program next year.
For the launch this year, Fenton initially wanted six students to participate in the pilot program. However, he was able to secure five students who signed up. In the end three students were able to remain committed to completing the entire program. Participants this year were able to sign up for the program by completing an application along with submitting reference letters. Next year there will be a more selective screening process.
Support for the program came from Chad Robinson at Hector Turf in Florida, James Grites, president of the VI Bankers Association, and Mike Morales at Turfpro on St. Croix. These organizations submitted resources, such as training products, that the students were able to use at the start of the program.
When asked what was the most exciting part of the program, Fenton said “The most important part is to be on the ground, learning things myself, learning a lot of stuff about that part of the industry besides playing golf itself.”
Fenton, who said he does not play golf, came up with the idea of the golf course maintenance program by looking “at the big picture.”
“I look at industries, at jobs and so forth, and where some of our young people can focus on,” said Fenton.
The next program he would like to include for participants of Future Job Skills of Tomorrow is ship building.
Fenton thanks all the supporters of the program. For more information on the Future Job Skills of Tomorrow call 340-201-3292 or email Fenton at reubenfenton20@gmail.com.
