Ministry of Education

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Executive Director of HEART Trust/NTA, Donald Foster

Jamaica's premier technical and vocational training institute, the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust (HEART)/National Training Agency (NTA), is moving to ensure that Jamaica's workforce keeps pace with demands by entities and industries globally, for more highly skilled and well-rounded workers.

Executive Director of HEART, Donald Foster, tells JIS News, that the dynamics of the current global market have changed, with focus centred on the quality of the education of "human capital." To this end, the agency will be placing more emphasis on improving the quality of the basic education of persons enrolled in its academies.

"The major resource for the development of any country is the human capital. Development is now based on knowledge and learning, moreso, than anything else. And because the labour market is changing so fast, because the workplace is changing so rapidly, (with) new materials, new products, (and) new requirements for us to compete, we have to have a labour force that is adaptable. We have to have a workforce that can learn the new knowledge, learn about the new products, and the new processes and methodologies that are required and so, a good basic education is now a requirement for training," he states.

The HEART Executive Director, points out that industries are constantly seeking to recruit persons with strong employability skills, as well as, basic educational competencies.

"The labour market is demanding higher levels of skills, higher levels of competencies...knowledge competence, skill competence, and attitudinal competence. So we will be emphasising higher level training," he outlines.

He points out that since the organisation's establishment in 1982, HEART had been graduating "thousands of persons" at Level I of the National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQJ) and "we are now putting a lot more emphasis on Level II up, in response to industry's demands."

According to Mr. Foster, HEART's NVQJ framework comprises five levels of training and certification. The first, he explains, provides entry level training for industries.

"They (graduates) go out there with basic entry level skills. When they get in the industry, they are not really skilled workers; they are seen as advanced apprentices. So, they will need a higher level of supervision at the workplace," Mr. Foster explains.

He further points out that Level II qualified graduates are more skilled and knowledgeable, requiring less supervision on the job. He describes a person trained at Level III as a "journeyman,"one who has fully served an apprenticeship in a trade or craft. Levels IV and V are the professional degree levels.

"We are now looking at moving it up to Level VII, which would be at the graduate level," he tells JIS News.

He notes further that "additionally, in a short while, we will be issuing the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), which is a qualification that has been approved by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). With your CVQ, you will be able to access any country in CARICOM for work. It will give the person mobility to move throughout the region. The CVQ will be accepted as bona fide certification to gain employment in any country."

He further advises that a new programme of certifying and upgrading HEART instructors to the Bachelor's degree level is to be instituted by the organisation's Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI), which undertakes training of the teaching staff.

"It is because of the dynamics of the labour market and the need for continuous life-long learning that we have to ensure that there are mechanisms in place to continuously train our Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) professionals... and the VTDI plays a very major role in that. In addition, we have worked very closely with the University of Technology (UTech), to train and certify our instructors to the degree level. The VTDI has now put in place its own degree programme to train and certify persons up to the NVQJ Level V Bachelor's degree certification level. That is a mechanism that will help us to keep apace with the demand (for highly skilled workers)," Mr. Foster outlines, adding that the institute also offers a first degree in career development.

"So, as we strive to improve the quality in the technical and vocational education and training system, we will be putting a lot more focus on improving the basic education of our learners, so that they have more literacy and numeracy skills, strong language and communications skills, and problem solving skills, what we now refer to as the employability skills. We are emphasising those areas, both at the entry level and the higher level," Mr. Foster says.

The Executive Director notes that activities in the global arena greatly influence changes effected locally and, to this end, stresses the need for Jamaica to be positioned to keep pace with globalisation, by "continuously upgrading our systems, our people, (and) our workforce."

"That is what global competition is all about. If we fall behind, then, certainly, we have to either pick up the pace, or we can decide to fall out of the race," Mr. Foster adds.

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