Learning through experience can be one of the most beneficial ways to capture a student's interest.

Now, every child in the public school system will have the opportunity to learn through experience with the Ministry of Education's Enrich Me programme.

The Ministry is hoping to encourage more organisations to get on-board and get students inspired to reach their career goals.

"The Enrich Me programme is interest-based education for the children that is linked to the curriculum," says Luann Wainwright, education officer of Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) at the Ministry of Education. "This exposes them to so much because they are doing it with a professional in that field."

The Enrich Me programme is part of GATE's aim to encourage "high-flying students" to reach their goals.

"During the town hall meetings that came out of the Blueprint for Education discussions many parents wanted to know what we are doing with our high-flying students," she says.

"Our motto is 'all children are born with a gift, but not all open it at the same time', and on the enrichment side there are several different courses, one of them is the after-school enrichment programme."

Students use the Renzulli computer program, which is a program that helps identify what students find interesting and can help define planning and guidelines for curriculum. It can also identify an individual student's interests.

Over the past four years the top three interests of students in Bermuda's public schools have been athletics, technology and performing arts. Students create their profile at the beginning of the school year and are given three choices that will be spread over the three terms.

"This is very much student-focused and not biased by parents or teachers — this is about what the child is interested in learning about," says Ms Wainwright.

Every child from P1 to S4 will have the opportunity to learn about his or her chosen field of interest. Children up to P4 will have a professional come to the school, while the programme encourages the older students to learn on-site with their chosen organisations.

Each term lasts about nine weeks and organisations will be asked to spend 90 minutes, one day a week with the students from 3.30 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. Students are required to produce a project at the end of each term

"The concept is that kids are exposed to community partner and see what the standards look like in the industry." Ms Wainwright explains. "It will expose kids to far more in-depth than what we can do in a school year — there is so much to learn in eight months."

For the community it is voluntary and time to spend with a student. It is a great way for organisations to build relationships and nurture possible future employees, Ms Wainwright adds.

"Learning doesn't just take place in the classroom," she says. "It has a much bigger impact and impression and this is such a huge talent pool that needs to be developed."

Interested organisations can find out more about being part of the Enrich Me programme by attending a presentation being held today at 4 p.m. at CedarBridge Academy, or contact Luann Wainwright at the Ministry of Education.