Henderson Eastmond, Executive Director of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council Barbados.
Executive Director of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council Barbados, Henderson Eastmond and the council would like the country to think in sectors and develop a national strategic plan for agriculture.
Speaking at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Youth Farm Programme Awards ceremony last Friday, at the L.V. Harcourt Lewis Training Facility, Eastmond outlined the vision for the TVET Council Barbados.
“We want the country to start thinking in sectors. We do not think in sectors. The agricultural sector can go from growing crops and rearing animals right up to food processing. Go to the highest we can, to produce and save foreign exchange so we can sit with the industry players in agriculture and plan where we want to go in the agricultural sector for the next five years.”
Eastmond said that he believed that such an initiative would help hammer out the curriculum and standards needed to plan and move forward in creating a national strategic plan.
“If we do that in the agricultural sector across the country, then we have a national strategic plan. It will also create a national HR and Manpower plan which will inform the priority areas.”
The aim of the TVET Council Barbados is to take Barbados from an importing nation to one of exporting.
“In keeping with the TVET visions for the sector and to the country, because the TVET Council sees the country as using and adding a highly trained and technical workforce that will boost our production to reduce imports and eventually be an exporting country. That is the only way we will build well as a country, or the economy will continue to struggle.” explained Eastmond.
The director lauded the efforts of the graduating class and thanked them for choosing the area in which they studied. He also highlighted that the programme had produced skilled individuals.
“The TVET Council sees the Youth Farm Programme as playing a critical role in the development of youth farmers and we are pleased to note that over the past eight years, we have certified 180 candidates. Some of whom have since gone on to further their studies in the area of agriculture and started small businesses.” (AS)