15 new TVET Master Trainers certified
─ Education Ministry continues to push Technical, Vocational Education and Training in schools
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, October 17, 2019
Guyanese students are slated to benefit from greater Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as 15 TVET practitioners were recently certified as Master Trainers.
Their certification comes following a week-long workshop, facilitated by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), which began on October 7 and culminated on October 15, 2019.
Before the certification of the 15 educators, only one person in Guyana was trained in this area. Recognising the importance of TVET for national development, the Ministry of Education embarked on measures intended to improve the delivery of education.
Dr. Laurette Bristol, Human Resource Development Programme Manager, attached to the CARICOM Secretariat, said that TVET can and must be used as a mechanism to reduce poverty. Dr. Bristol expressed her confidence that an improved focus on TVET will address the issue of high rates of youth unemployment in the Caribbean.
Among the areas the 15 new Master Trainers received training in were learning styles, integrating Information Technology into the delivery methodology, developing lesson plans, best practices and establishing, managing and evaluating training systems. All of which will improve the delivery of the TVET Curriculum in Secondary and Post-Secondary instructions in Guyana.
Regional TVET Consultant and Trainer in the Caribbean, Dr. Paulette Dunne-Pierre, while giving an overview of the workshop said that the exercise was developed as an outcome of the Revised TVET Strategy of 2014. Within that Revised Strategy, training and development of TVET instructors were identified as critical.
According to Dr. Dunne-Pierre, the workshop examines Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET). She further explained that since the new Master Trainers were already trained as TVET assessors and verifiers, they received dual certification; first, the Master Trainer Certification and then Level Four Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) certification.
The training workshop falls under the purview of the Guyana Skills Development and Employability Project (GSDEP) funded by the Caribbean Development Bank.
Assistant Chief Education Officer (Technical), Patrick Onwuzirike relayed that the workshop’s main objective was to enable more suitably qualified personnel given that the Ministry of Education will be streamlining TVET in Secondary Schools.
Chairman of the CTVET, Clinton Williams noted that the programme was “intended to build and enhance capacity in keeping with international best practices in competency-based education and training.”
CTVET has the responsibility to ensure that there is effective and efficient delivery of quality technical and vocational education and training in Guyana.