HEART/NSTA Trust Being Repositioned To Respond To Workforce Needs

The HEART/NSTA Trust is being repositioned to meet the demands of the 21st century workforce.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, said the adjustment will ensure that the operations of the institution are in keeping with the growth agenda, which includes significantly improving the employability of citizens, particularly the youth.

He said it is imperative that the HEART/NSTA Trust and other training institutions develop programmes that are responsive to the needs of the job market.

“HEART is quietly going through some very serious changes. We have augmented the board, we have recently now settled on appointing a new managing director… the chairman has been missioned as to exactly what we need to do, to make HEART an industry-friendly institution that is aligned to the growth agenda,” he informed.

The Prime Minister was addressing the graduation ceremony for the first cohort of 25 trainees under the Amber HEART Academy at the AC Hotel by Marriott Kingston in St. Andrew on June 1.

The graduates are equipped with skills in coding and software development to ensure successful careers and tap into local and global demand.

Mr. Holness noted that with the repositioning of the HEART/NSTA Trust, “you will be seeing many more projects like these, bringing out new skills to support the new industries that are growing, while at the same time supporting our traditional industries in construction, tourism, business process outsourcing, so we are on top of it”.

These training programmes and initiatives, he said, will broaden the country’s skilled labour force and allow persons to benefit from the development projects that will be coming on stream.

Congratulating the graduates, the Prime Minister said they will support the country’s vision to create a digital society.

“There is the need for the link between machine and function. Man needs to direct machines, and how we direct machines is through coding and that is the fourth industrial revolution,” he noted.

Mr. Holness said that there are also plans to develop a cadre of data engineers, who are highly trained in the development of algorithms and data mining.

“We don’t have that skill readily in Jamaica… so we have to be very deliberately going about creating the environment in which these new 21st century skills and talents will emerge,” he pointed out.

The Amber HEART Academy, which is a new school for coding, was officially launched on January 14, 2021.

It is the brainchild of the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Amber Group, Dushyant Savadia and is a partnership with the HEART/NSTA Trust, the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme and the Art of Living Foundation.

The first batch of graduates were immersed in an intensive six-month programme taught by a team of highly qualified master coders from the Amber Group, followed by a six-month internship programme, where they developed software programmes, alongside senior developers.

The successful graduates are now NCTVET-certified with guaranteed jobs through the Amber Group, Digicel, and National Commercial Bank.