Council Of Community Colleges Stages Activities For 20th Anniversary

The Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) is celebrating its 20^th anniversary in December, and will stage a series of activities to mark the occasion, under the theme ‘CCCJ at 20, Expanding the Possibilities’.

Speaking today (December 1) at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, Executive Director of the CCCJ, Donna Powell Wilson, said that throughout its 20-year existence, the entity has remained true to its commitment of ensuring that they provide affordable quality education for students from age 17.

“We have a mantra – we take you where you are and take you to where you want to be. No learner is turned away from our member institutions. If you have no subject or qualification, our member institutions will take you and guide you through the process,” Mrs. Powell Wilson noted.

For her part, Principal of Trench Town Polytechnic College and Chair of the CCCJ Events Management Committee, Dr. Dosseth Edwards-Watson, said it is an exciting period in time for the CCCJ to be celebrating its 20^th anniversary.

“We have a year of activities planned. So far, we have had a few workshops. In September we did a workshop on assessment geared at the professional development for our faculty, because given the times we are in now with virtual learning, we felt it prudent to have our staff understand how to do assessment online and make the teaching presence effective in these times,” she said.

Dr. Edwards-Watson said that in the just concluded Youth Month celebrations in November, the CCCJ also conducted a workshop for student leaders.

On Sunday, December 5, the agency will host a church service at the Moneague College in St. Ann. The service will be live-streamed at 10:00 a.m. on the CCCJ’s YouTube channel.

“In February, we will have our conference and we will be recognising those members of staff who would have served the colleges well over many years and are about to retire,” Dr. Edwards-Watson noted.

In the meantime, the agency has had several accomplishments over its 20 years.

Mrs. Powell Wilson said that the CCCJ is proud of its ISO 9001 2015 Certification.

“I think we are the third government education institution to have that status, which is really good for us. It speaks to the quality of what we do. We have converted four programmes, not courses, but programmes for online delivery. Each of our programmes has a minimum of 20 authentic courses and these are available for online delivery,” she pointed out.

Mrs. Powell Wilson  said that the CCCJ has instituted Academic Excellence Awards for faculty and student of the year.

“Over the 20 years we have expanded. When we started in 2001, there were eight institutions, we now have 10. Trench Town Polytechnic and Knockalva Polytechnic came on. We have expanded our services; we now have over 23 programmes at the associate level, about 15 at the bachelor level, and we are looking at expanding into other areas in the curricula. We’re looking at postgraduate, and, certainly, we are looking at a higher degree,” she noted.

The CCCJ is an agency of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information that has supervisory responsibility for the community colleges in Jamaica. They also have multidisciplinary and polytechnic colleges, with 10 member institutions. The CCCJ provides curriculum development and review with examination assessment and certification.