HEART/NSTA Trust to Collaborate with Industry Skills Councils

The HEART/NSTA Trust will be further developing its curriculum through collaboration with skills councils from various industries to better prepare students for their respective fields.

Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with oversight for Skills and Digital Transformation, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, made the announcement while responding to questions during the sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, on March 5, at Gordon House.

Dr. Morris Dixon said an arrangement already exists with the training institution and a skills council from the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector.

“There is an innovation called sector skills councils, and that has worked really well in the BPO space where the Global Services Association has set up a business skills council, and what they do is they actually work with HEART to develop their training programmes and they give their numbers in terms of their projections, so that HEART can tailor and move its instructors around to meet those needs. And that is something that has to be replicated in other industries,” Dr. Morris Dixon informed.

She said that similar arrangements are being created for other sectors, such as the manufacturing, construction and logistics industries.

“I’m very happy to tell you that we do have a programme coming up with support from the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) in order to set up sector skills councils in logistics and in manufacturing, where HEART will be able to be more closely interconnected… because there’s actually a lot of demand there for skills,” the Minister said.

“So, HEART will no longer just be developing its curriculum on its own, but will be directed by the skills councils, which is led by the industries themselves and the persons who have businesses in those sectors. So, that is something that’s really, really important,” she added.