In response to the evolving demands of today’s workforce and the growing appetite for flexible skills-based learning, The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona campus, is to launch an organised short courses programme.

The UWI Short Term Advancement and Resource (STAR) initiative is designed to centralise and modernise the university’s offerings of professional short courses.

“As you know, there is a growing trend [where] many universities in the world are offering short professional courses because of a change in how young people and professionals want to consume tertiary education. Many people don’t have the stomach or the appetite or the patience for a four-year degree course, or a three-year degree course.

“On top of that, there are many professional bodies that require continuing professional education in order for people to maintain their licences and so on, and you would have heard the debate with the teachers being furthest away,” said UWI Campus Registrar Dr Donovan Stanberry.

He noted that while The UWI, Mona has long offered short courses across various departments, The UWI STAR will act as a central administrative hub to streamline offerings, ensure consistent quality, and make it easier for the public and private sectors to engage with the university.

“Here at the Mona campus, we have always offered these courses in different departments, but we have never had a standardised way in which we do it. So, The UWI STAR now is this administrative construct that will bring that level of standardisation to the programme,” said Dr Stanberry as he indicated that the programme will be formally launched on May 29.

He pointed out that The UWI STAR is already in operation, providing more than 150 industry responsive courses across all faculties at the university.

He said one of the initiative’s most significant features is the stackability of its courses.

According to Dr Stanberry, learners can accumulate credits from short courses that will provide a new opportunity for students to get qualified without doing a full degree programme.

This, he said, allows professionals to build their credentials gradually, at their own pace, while remaining active in their careers.

“Short courses abound, everybody has it, but let me tell you something, when you get a certificate with The UWI brand, some of those short courses can in fact be accorded credit that you probably could stock up and come into our conventional programmes. So there is a massive benefit there and that is the advantage that we will have in the marketplace in terms of the quality that we offer,” added Dr Stanberry.

In the meantime, Dr Olivene Burke, director of The UWI STAR, emphasised the project’s agility in meeting real-time market needs.

“We are constantly listening to industry. We ask them, what competencies do your employees need today? And we build our courses around that feedback,” she said.

Dr Burke noted that the initiative works directly with all The UWI, Mona faculties to identify course offerings and match them with public and private sector demands.

“We finally decided last year that we would formalise this body to pull all the short courses under one basic administrative hub or administrative umbrella and so, the unit is responsible for liaising with all the faculties on the campus.

“We liaise with them to see the courses that are offered and then we help in the promotion and marketing and interfacing with the public and private sector entities to enhance what they have,” said Dr Burke.

“We implement new courses around the clock because we are being very relevant and we are listening to the demand. We’re not only listening, we’re also forecasting. We are not just preparing for today but we are looking at the environment… we are forecasting the environment and see how we can be more agile, more ready for it,” added Dr Burke.