The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council is encouraging local institutions to offer more technical and vocational programmes and to offer these subjects up to at least a degree level.
That’s according to Henderson Eastmond, Executive Director of the TVET Council, who said there is a still a long way to go in terms of raising the standard of technical and vocational education in this country, especially in areas such as technology. As such, he contended that the Council will be working relentlessly over the next few years to ensure that such programmes come on stream.
The Executive Director made the comments while speaking at a media briefing yesterday morning to introduce the WorldSkills Barbados Team that will be headed to Abu Dhabi this October for the 44th WorldSkills Competition in October.
“The Council is aggressively trying to push the institutions to move especially the tertiary level institutions like the Polytechnic and the Barbados Vocational Training Board as well as Community College to raise the level of the standard of their training, higher level technical qualifications at least to the degree level. We think that after 50 years of independence we should be there,” he said.
In fact, Eastmond contended that this is the route these institutions must go if Barbados is to remain competitive. He made the point while noting that it has been suggested that for a country to be competitive, 60 per cent of its workforce should have technical certificates.
“We have to make our country more competitive, it means we have to fire on more than one sector, not only tourism. We want to help put our people in the position that we can reduce that $800 million food bill. We want to resuscitate manufacturing in such a way, we will not be able to export right away, but that will be the thrust, that’s where you get your foreign exchange from… If there are small things that we import that we can make here we would like to equip our people to make them and that is thrust of the TVET Council, that is our mandate,” he stated.
With that in mind, Eastmond added that with the possibility of Barbados engaging in offshore drilling for oil, it is imperative that Barbadians are also properly trained to work in that sector.
Meanwhile, reflecting on the competition in October, Eastmond said it is more than a competition, as the experience helps to promote technical and vocational education and expose Barbadians to a world class event. He said through the trip, those attending, competitors and experts will also learn new skills and techniques that they can bring back to Barbados and share with others. (JRT)