their perspective as young adult Jamaicans. The First
Year Experience initiative included visits to sites of
national historic and cultural interest, among them, the
“Cry Baby” Monument in downtown Kingston, the
Institute of Jamaica, National Heroes Park, Port Royal,
and Hope Botanical Gardens.
High School Mentoring Programme
In partnership with the Environmental Health
Foundation (EHF), UTech, Jamaica re-launched ‘the
High School Mentoring Programme” for academic year
2014/2015.
Prior to the relaunch in January 2015, twenty-eight (28)
specially selected students were trained as mentors
in the requisite skills. Students from Jamaica College,
Papine High School and Mona High School were
enlisted in the six-week programme.
Counselling Services
The Counselling Unit held 1,144 sessions for the
period April 2014 to March 2015, 106 more than in the
previous year. During the period, in addition to personal
counseling, the Unit was active in supporting a number
of steps taken by the Administration to relieve the
financial and other constraints facing students.
The Counselling Unit supported the University’s
initiative of “Academic Pardon/Grade Forgiveness”
which benefitted large numbers of students who were
reinstated in their courses based on the bench-marked
Grade Point Average.
Student Residential Accommodation
The Amy Jacques Garvey Hall was re-opened on
January 12, 2015. This renovated triple occupancy
facility now has a capacity of 128 residents, a 66%
increase over the previous capacity of 78 students. The
combined capacity of the Amy Jacques Garvey Hall and
the Dennis Johnson Hall stands at 503, up from 315.
Career and Job Placement Fair
The Career and Placement Unit’s Annual Career and
Job Placement Fair was held on March 27, 2015 at the
Papine campus and on April 10, 2015 at the Montego
Bay campus. Over 400 finalizing students registered
to attend the Career and Job Placement Fair, a 13%
increase in attendance over the previous year.
Eighty-five (85) companies participated in the Fair, an
increase from the previous year’s seventy-nine (79).
The main sponsor was National Commercial Bank.
Through the generous donations of the sponsors
from Dress for Success and the Fit to Recruit Charity
45 female and 22 male students were outfitted in
appropriate business attire.
Final year students being interviewed by prospective employers at the annual Job Fair
held on Friday, March 27, 2015 at the Alfred Sangster auditorium, UTech Papine campus.
Over eighty (80) companies were represented at the Job Fair.
Page 19
University of Technology, Jamaica
• ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015