HEART/NSTA Trust Looking to Improve Global Competitiveness Index Ranking

The HEART/NSTA Trust is looking to improve on its ranking in the 2019 Global Competitiveness Index Report, which indicated that Jamaica was 36th of 141 countries in quality vocational training.

HEART’s Director of Strategic Partnership, Research and Innovation, Kenesha Campbell, said this is part of the agency’s larger mandate of providing globally competitive, contemporary training programmes.

She was addressing the recent launch of the Technology Advancement Programme (TAP) III and signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the University of Technology (UTech) Jamaica campus in St. Andrew.

Significantly, as part of its strategic plan, Ms. Campbell said HEART is targeting at-risk youth, particularly those in Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) communities, as well as those in areas with high crime rates.

“We have… been mandated to expand our engagement of at-risk youth because, on that same global competitiveness report, we were ranked 140 out of 141 countries in terms of homicide rates; we were also mandated in our strategy to expand the TVET ecosystem,” she said.

HEART is one of several entities partnering with the Universal Service Fund (USF), to deliver TAP III. Other partners include Amber Group Limited, and UTech.

The third cohort of the programme will focus primarily on delivering coding training.

Additionally, participants will benefit from immediate and guaranteed employment as a result of the partnership.

Ms. Campbell said greater emphasis is being placed on preparing candidates to be work-ready at the end of training.

“We know that the industry has been saying that graduates have been coming from the education system not ready for work. The industry has to spend more time doing training, and the partnership with Amber has ensured that we are producing persons who are able to hit the ground running,” she explained.

Noting that the initiative has been “revolutionary”, Ms. Campbell said it has increased training and employment locally, and created industry demand, adding that “we are not outsourcing so much anymore”.

“As we work with Amber, UTECH, and USF, we will ensure that we are graduating enough software developers, so that persons start to outsource to Jamaica and not the other way around,” she added.