Dear Editor,

As the world slowly emerges from the current economic downturn, the ability of countries to increase the skills of their workforce is a significant concern of both business and government. The need to increase employment opportunities and to enhance the workforce’s social mobility through improved employability is particularly pressing in countries such as ours, where completing secondary education followed by university does not necessarily lead to employment, and as we have been discussing recently, there has been a rapid increase in youth unemployment as they unsuccessfully seek entry to formal employment.

Jamaica, however, has an excellent Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) model that we now need to leverage seriously in order to increase incomes, help reduce our spiralling poverty level and to serve as a catalyst for more robust social mobility. Any system that improves employability and social mobility will stimulate trade and commerce, and this in turn will steadily reduce poverty and improve both personal and national income levels.

It is vital to our success to invest in our people and by extension our high schools by strategically using our TVET system to capitalise on our natural resources and our needs, so as to create goods and services which are in demand both locally and internationally while working with local industry and social partners to develop the competitive advantage. Already we have identified what the new and emerging areas are – for example, creative industries, health and sports tourism – so our schools and training providers now need to work with industry and social partners to make the necessary change a reality.

Jamaica needs a well-trained workforce; trained and certified to international standards, but the training must begin early, so that students can develop the necessary skills to enable them to make a successful transition from school to work. We need to align curriculum and skills training at the high school level with the demands and needs of the labour market, ensuring that all our students master the necessary skill sets before entering the labour market. Students must have the educational foundation which enables them to take advantage of the offerings of the formal TVET system.

In successful countries like Japan, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Brazil, TVET plays a major role at the high school level where schools develop relationships with social partners, industry and employers who pick from the “best and the brightest” to work in their establishments as they have the skills and competencies which employers need.

A country will inevitably attract business partners and foreign investment and encourage economic growth due in large part to its well-trained workforce. We have a gold mine in our training model. If we can extend the model to the secondary and high school levels, making what we do more relevant, improving the quality of delivery and standardising our approach across the education and training system, we will reap the benefit economically and socially, sooner rather than later.

Paulette Dunn-Pierre

Kingston 10