Errald Miller Receives City and Guilds Fellowship

Retired telecommunications company executive, the Most Hon. Errald Miller, has been conferred with the Diploma of Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute.

Mr. Miller, who is the husband of Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, served as Chief Executive Officer of Cable and Wireless Jamaica (now LIME), and also headed the regional arm of the company.

He is the fourth Jamaican to receive the City and Guilds honour. The others are Lord Bill Morris, Professor Gosset Oliver, and the late former Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke.

At the conferment ceremony held on March 31 at the British High Commissioner’s residence in St. Andrew, the Prime Minister said the honour was well deserved.

She noted that Mr. Miller is an accomplished professional, who has operated globally at the highest levels of the private sector.

“This is matched with a strong social conscience, a love of people, and a kind and generous heart,” she noted.

The Prime Minister also lauded City and Guilds for recognising persons, who have demonstrated high standards of excellence in their field, while also earning the respect of their peers, and stand out as professionals to be emulated.

She said Jamaica endorses City and Guilds’ model of training in technical and vocational skills and will be looking to strengthen ties with the institution and similar bodies, “to educate our people…especially our youth, for high quality jobs and business opportunities”.

“This is one of the surest routes to achieving the economic growth and sustainable development (that) we seek, to propel our nation and our people into a secure and brighter future,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Miller, in his response, took the audience through his journey from Rusea’s High School in Hanover, to being an apprentice at the then Jamaica Telephone Company, then receiving technical training at the former College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST), now University of Technology (UTech), where he received a City and Guilds qualification.

He told the audience that he has always been “results-oriented” believing that an answer exists for every problem.

Mr. Miller also called for continued focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in the school system.

Other speakers at the function included Chancellor of UTech, the Most Hon. Edward Seaga; Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites; and Director of City and Guilds International, Mike Dawe.

Mr. Miller served as part-time lecturer at CAST and he has implemented programmes to allow Jamaicans to further their education while working.

During his long and distinguished career, he has served on several boards including the University of the West Indies Mona Campus Council; Mona Institute of Business; Multicare Foundation; Kingston YMCA; National Foundation for Development of Science and Technology Limited (of Jamaica); Jamaica Digiport International Limited; Sugar Company of Jamaica; and Special Olympics Caribbean.

City and Guilds is a vocational education organisation founded in the United Kingdom. It offers more than 500 qualifications across a variety of sectors, through 8, 500 colleges and training providers in 81 countries worldwide.

The Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London is the highest honour to be awarded by the Council. It is usually awarded to remarkable individuals, who have demonstrated the highest standards of excellence in their field, earned the respect of their peers, and deemed role models for their profession.