The HEART Trust/NSTA’s failure to issue certificates to students for over three years is causing enrolment hesitancy, say some of its training institutions in St Catherine.

Hundreds of students are yet to receive certifications for their Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes, and facilitators have reported that this has impacted the schools negatively.

The coordinator for the West Prospect Skills Training Centre Sonia Stewart said that this has hampered the recruitment drive for new students to enter the programmes offered.

“The HEART Trust has a big delay when it comes on to issuing certificates. Now once the certificates start issuing, we won’t have a problem with it [enrolment issues],” she said.

Within the past three years, 400 students have passed through the programmes at the West Prospect school, but only around 100 of these have received their certificates.

Stewart explained that tangible certification would show that students are fully qualified in the HEART Trust system.

“If that is settled, if that problem is solved, then this will prompt the young people to enrol. But when you have three years passed and no certificates, this puts a damp on recruitment.”

The coordinator for the Commodore Skills Training Centre Lascelles Burnett, however, said enrolment hesitancy is not the only problem the institutions face. She said past students are also being harassed by community members and potential students, and it prevents job promotions from the ones employed.

“The students are calling for their certificates, being harassed on the streets. The students are demotivated to a great extent, and it also affects the community because, when I came, I was told that we are training students without providing certificates.” He explained, “Some of our students go abroad and some of them entitle promotion where they are working, and they say they need those documentary evidence to show their employers.”

A training centre that asked to remain anonymous said outstanding certificates have mounted up to over 300 out of 550 or more students.

“No certificates mean no employment. Employees want to see certificates,” the school said: “Persons that are working are those that work for themselves or places that don’t require certificates.”

The training centre provided an advisory sent from the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET), a division of the HEART/NSTA Trust, on July 28, 2021.

The advisory stated in part, “The National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET), a division of the HEART/NSTA Trust, wishes to advise all its stakeholders that we are currently experiencing challenges with the printing of certificates due to circumstances beyond our control. Every effort is being made to resolve the issue at the earliest possible time. The affected certificates are the National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQ-J), Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) and Job certificates. We apologise for any inconveniences this situation may cause and crave your patience and understanding as we work towards a resolution.”

It has been almost a year since this advisory, but the issues remain. However, Burnett sees a light in the dim tunnel as the HEART/NSTA Trust has implemented virtual certifications for its students, even though many of the students prefer a physical copy.

“What happened is that I understand there wasn’t a board in place, so to get the signatures on the certificates was creating a problem. The encouragement we got is to apply for the transcript. We were able to get the transcript; however the students were still not satisfied. They prefer to have the certificates in hand,” he said.

The programmes provide hands-on training that can be applied to various industries from tourism and hospitality to construction and welding and is recognised in the diaspora as well as internationally for employment opportunities.

“What has happened now is that HEART is now asking all trainees to apply for an e-certificate. They sent me the link and I’ve been sending the link to the trainees. We are also making appointments for the trainees, who are having challenges in getting through, to contact our office and we will do the applications for them.”

The hope is that most of the students will receive their e-certifications soon. The training schools across Jamaica play an essential role in remedying unemployment and contributing to the workforce of the country with the programmes offered. Offered programmes include, but are not limited to, tiling, housekeeping, commercial foods, painting, cake-baking and decoration, and customer engagement operations.