KINGSTON, Jamaica— The HEART/NSTA Trust will continue its 41st anniversary celebrations with the graduation of 11,753 trainees from various programmes over a two-month period, starting Thursday, November 9.

The students who have been trained at institutions, such as the HEART College of Construction, the South and Northwest TVET campuses, and the Jamaican-German Automotive School, will be certified in several areas, including digital animation, printing and graphics, geomatic and geospatial service.

For the first graduation, scheduled for November 9, individuals are being invited to attend the ceremony for Region 4 trainees at the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Mount Salem, St James, at 9:00 am.

The ceremonies for Regions 2, 3, 1, 6 and 5 will be held on November 16, 23 and 30 and December 1 and 6, respectively.

Managing Director of the HEART/NSTA Trust, Dr Tanisha Ingleton, said that “the ceremonies to be held are in response to the heightened demand for the injection of skilled labour and ready talent to supply the Jamaican workforce and drive the economy”.

Dr Ingleton was addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the agency’s head office in Kingston on Tuesday.

Over the years, the institution has been training individuals to respond to the productivity needs of various sectors, including tourism, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and information technology.

Consequently, 3,920 trainees from the services sector, 2,383 from the tourism/hospitality sector, 1,460 from the construction sector, and the remaining 3,990 from other sectors, including healthcare and information technology, will grace the graduation stages and present themselves as “ready” to respond to those needs.

“We are not only getting individuals who are technically sound but individuals who are ‘Monday-morning-ready’… individuals who have that kind of posture, the attitude for work, understanding professionalism, communication, how to handle difficult conversations, and how to show up at work and really make a difference in the space. So, indeed, we are pleased and Jamaica will be pleased,” Dr Ingleton stated.

Students from all 26 HEART institutions, as well as Community Training Interventions and partnering entities across the 14 parishes, will graduate during the ceremonies to be held under the theme ‘Retooled, Reskilled, Reimagined: Empowering Tomorrow’s Workforce Today’.

-JIS