Heart Trust Unveils New Business Model

The new business model currently being developed by the HEART Trust/NTA in pursuit of its mandate to equip Jamaica with a world-class workforce was discussed at a public forum held on Wednesday, February 11 at the Port Antonio marina.
The forum was designed to explain the new model to stakeholders in the parish to enable them to fully understand the benefits as well as to solicit their support for the idea. Among those present were principals and guidance counsellors of schools and representatives of several businesses in the parish.
Under the initiative, the HEART Trust will ensure that more young people and working age Jamaicans have access to training and certification.
Giving the main address at the seminar, Sonia Bennett-Cunningham, Manager of the Educational Technology and Management Unit at the HEART Trust, said the model represented a revolutionary approach to technical and vocational education and training and was designed to build the capacity of the national training system over time to accommodate at least 100,000 persons on an annual basis.
She noted that the measure would allow HEART to broaden and deepen its reach, fulfilling its mandate of creating a workforce that was trained and certified to global standards.
She informed that the framework had been refined from competency certification systems of the United Kingdom, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, while the industry-based workforce development systems of countries such as Mexico, Mauritius, Malaysia, South Africa and the United States were also examined during the planning process.
Speaking to JIS News during the seminar, the participants gave the assurance that they would give their full support of the new model. Describing it as an initiative, which would be particularly helpful to students who were not academically inclined, the principals and guidance counsellors said it would play a major role in helping students to realise their full potential.