Welcome from the Director
Hello, and a warm welcome to the Education, Skills and Employment Portfolio. In our portfolio we strive to provide an inclusive world-class education system which meets the needs of the people of St. Helena, embraces St Helena’s culture and is tailored to meeting St. Helena’s future economic and development needs. Engaging with the community of St. Helena is essential to achieve these goals so through this website we aim to improve public awareness of our aims, objectives and priorities, share information on the services we offer and to provide links to make communicating and engaging with us easier and more efficient.
We want to ensure our website is informative and useful so please give us feedback using the Contact Us form so we can continue to improve and develop. We hope that you will enjoy using our website
Wendy C Benjamin
Portfolio Director
Portfolio Overview
The Portfolio is responsible for the education, training and development of our young people and for providing further education, professional training, professional development opportunities and careers guidance to the wider community of St. Helena. Raising academic attainment and improving education for the benefit of the people of St. Helena is the reason for our existence.
The Portfolio works to the Education Ordinance 2008, supported by Education Regulations 2009; and the Employment Rights Ordinance 2010. In addition, the work of the Portfolio contributes to a range of other strategic documents such as those listed below.
Coming soon!!
The business of the Portfolio falls under two sectors, Schools and Lifelong Learning. This is further separated into two categories; core services and non-core services. Core services are determined by law through the Education Ordinance and Employment Rights Ordinance.
Under Schools we provide the core service of full time education to all children on St. Helena who are of compulsory school age (5 to 16 yrs/Reception to Year 11).  Schools are supported by our Inclusion Service which ensures that all children, no matter what their ability, circumstances, special educational need or disability, have opportunity to access mainstream education. Our Teacher Training Section supports the training and development of our teaching cadre. In addition, we offer non-core services which include Nursery Education for children aged 3 – 4 years and opportunity for Post School learning (Years 12 and 13) which increases opportunity to access Tertiary Education.
The Lifelong Learning Sector offers non-core services that cater for all other aspects of education for the benefit of the wider community of St. Helena.  The St. Helena Community College (SHCC) offers academic learning, professional training and development to the adult population of St. Helena. This is offered through face to face training, teaching and on-line/distance learning opportunities. Career Access (CA) offers careers support and guidance to all adults and includes a 6th Form Programme which enables 16-18 year olds to access further education and vocational training and development. The St. Helena Research Institute (SHRI) has responsibility for managing and monitoring all research conducted on St. Helena to ensure that it is carried out in a responsible manner that protects the island and its people. The only core service provided under the Lifelong Learning sector is the operation of the Public Library. Â
