Port Antonio, Portland – Stakeholders from this parish were introduced, at a public forum last Wednesday, to the new business model currently being developed by the HEART Trust/NTA, in pursuit of its mandate to equip Jamaica with a world-class workforce.

The seminar was aimed at helping residents to fully understand the benefits of the model, as well as to solicit their support for the idea. Among those present were principals and guidance counsellors of schools as well as representatives of several businesses in the parish.

Under the initiative, the HEART Trust will ensure that more young people and working-age Jamaicans have access to training and certification.

Giving the main address at the seminar, Sonia Bennett-Cunningham, manager of the Educational Technology and Management Unit at the HEART Trust, said the model represented a revolutionary approach to technical and vocational education and training. It was designed, she said, to build the capacity of the national training system over time, to accommodate at least 100,000 persons on an annual basis.

She noted that the measure would allow HEART to broaden and deepen its reach, fulfilling its mandate of creating a workforce that was trained and certified to global standards.

According to Bennett-Cunningham, the framework had been refined from competency certification systems from the United Kingdom, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, while the industry-based workforce development systems of countries such as Mexico, Mauritius, Malaysia, South Africa and the United States were also examined during the planning process.

Speaking to JIS News during the seminar, the participants gave the assurance that they would give their full support to the new model. Describing it as an initiative which would be particularly helpful to students who were not academically inclined, the principals and guidance counsellors said it would play a major role in helping students realise their full potential.

JIS