Eleven Tertiary Institutions Receive Certification From J-TEC

Eleven tertiary institutions were registered with the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission (J-TEC) and received certification during a Registration Conferral Ceremony held in Kingston today (November 17).

The certified institutions are: in St James – the International Postgraduate Medical College; in Manchester –  Church Teachers’ College; in St Ann – Moneague College; Sigma College of Nursing and Applied Sciences and Brown’s Town Community College; in Kingston – Caribbean School of Medical Sciences; Institute of International Recognised Qualifications; Institute of Nutrition and Wellness Studies, Media Technology Institute and SMTC Career Institute; and in Clarendon – Allied Health Care Institute of the Caribbean Limited.

In her remarks at the ceremony, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, the Hon. Fayval Williams, said that currently, 147 other tertiary institutions are certified to provide higher education across the island.

“These include universities, teacher training colleges, specialised training institutions, and vocational institutions that offer a variety of training and certification,” she said.

She also stated that it is important to maintain “rigorous national and institutional quality assurance standards in education, to ensure “confidence that the training offered is of the highest quality.s

“Governments are increasingly understanding that the entire educational system from early childhood through tertiary education must reflect the new social and economic needs of the global knowledge economy, which increasingly demands a better trained, more skilled and adaptable workforce. The imperative of implementing and maintaining quality assurance standards has therefore taken on added significance,” she further stated.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of J-TEC Dr. Dameon Black, said the commission remains committed to implementing the “global benchmark standards and supporting processes and procedures.

“We certainly commit through the integrated higher education system to accommodate a network of multiple providers offering opportunities to pursue educational provisions, the diversity in study provisions among learners, and certainly the diversity of ownership and control of provisions,” he said.

J-TEC is an agency of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information with responsibility for regulating the tertiary education sector through assessing, placing, registering qualifications and developing policy.