With just a little over a month since the start of the Training for Professionals Programme, thousands of Jamaicans are actively upskilling and reskilling in their chosen fields of study and have collectively already completed over 4,000 courses and 700 modules. 

The programme, which is included in the Flow Foundation’s Digital Education initiative, is free for participants, fully online, self-paced and certified as the foundation continues to enable and empower Jamaicans through digital inclusion.

Executed in partnership with One on One Educational Services, the programme’s course categories range from industry-specific courses such as Finance, Healthcare and Hospitality to fields such as Technology, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI), Safety, Compliance, Wellness and Business Skills – including Leadership and Management.  Each category is comprised of several courses.

Current enrollment trends indicate that Leadership/Management is the most subscribed course , followed by Cybersecurity, Project Management (PMI/PMBOK), Information Technology and Healthcare respectively.

In addition to access to a wide variety of courses by some of the top publishers in the world including Google and Microsoft, participants are also being supported through One on One Educational Services’ knowledge base platform where they can access a wide range of self-help resources such as articles and videos.  There is also 24-hour online support.

Speaking on the progress of the programme, Sashanee Stone, Customer Success Manager, One on One Educational Services said, “It was interesting for me to observe that many persons have not actually participated in an e-learning programme.  Being able to assist these individuals, especially during this pandemic, so that they are able to progress on their own and sharing their sense of accomplishment has been extremely rewarding.”

Stone also shared, “Persons are so thirsty for education and are eager to learn.  What I have seen is a group of individuals who are extremely committed to pursuing their course of study.  As a result, they are completing the courses in their curriculum, improving their existing skills and acquiring new ones as they move on to new areas of study.  They just make my job so much easier and edifying because their success becomes mine.”

Ricardo Allen, CEO of One on One Educational Services was heartened by the enthusiasm of the participants.

“In this past year, we have seen an unprecedented transformation of how our society uses the digital space.  Most of us now know that we have no choice.  We must adapt and prepare ourselves for a digital future. And I believe that it is that realization which has propelled so many Jamaicans to take up the opportunity being offered by the training.  It has also resulted in high standards of performance.  I can hardly wait to see the results at the end of the journey.  I am confident that there will be many lessons learnt.”

Allen further shared that he believes the strategy of participants being assigned customized learning paths and an engaging curriculum, based on their specific needs, has contributed to the programme’s performance success so far. He reiterated that participants are supported and engaged through a gamification component, webinars and via WhatsApp groups, among other channels, all of which have a proven track record of success in the online learning space.

Kayon Mitchell, Executive Director of the Flow Foundation was pleased with the performance of the programme participants thus far. 

“We know that many professionals were significantly impacted by the pandemic which resulted in job loss or reduced income across all sectors and industries across the country.  With businesses rapidly transitioning to the online space, it was extremely clear that we needed to support our professionals through this challenging time.  This programme is therefore very timely as we provide these certified courses which will help them to upskill and reskill, enabling them to pursue new opportunities whether on their own or via promotions. We’ve also removed a major barrier by covering the training cost for this programme.”

“The response has been great with all available 4,000 spaces filled.  The performance reports indicate that the engagement of the professionals has already surpassed our expectations for this first phase and we are delighted at the trends we are seeing.  I have no doubt that our participants will continue to excel as take charge of their future by maximizing this opportunity,” she concluded.

The Training for Professionals Programme is one of the several ways that the Flow Foundation is driving digital inclusion to enable the progress of all Jamaicans.  It is one of two programmes under the organization’s Digital Education pillar with the other being its Skills for the Future Programme which is administered through the Caribbean School of Data at the Mona School of Business & Management.