HEART Urges Builders to Access Free Training for Stronger Resilience

Senior Instructor at the HEART College of Construction Services, Shalimar Blair, is urging builders and homeowners to take advantage of free construction training offered by the HEART/NSTA Trust, aimed at strengthening building resilience across the island.

He was speaking during a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’, held as part of the national ‘Strap Up Jamaica’ campaign led by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

The initiative seeks to promote safer roofing practices and enhance disaster preparedness among homeowners, builders, and contractors.

Running until March 14 under the sub theme ‘Build Jamaica’s Resilience, One Strap at a Time’, the campaign reinforces compliance with building standards and promotes the proper use of hurricane straps as a critical safeguard against storm damage.

Mr. Blair noted that the HEART/NSTA Trust provides free training up to Level Four certification in several construction disciplines, aimed at improving building standards and ensuring greater compliance with the national code.

“These include Carpentry, Levels One to Three, which focus on timber roof construction and the proper installation of hurricane straps and roof-framing techniques; Masonry, which exposes trainees to national building codes and structural requirements that support roof stability; and Building Construction or Building Contracting, which equips contractors with project management, quality assurance and inspection skills to ensure work is carried out to approved standards,” he shared.

Referring to the ODPEM campaign, Mr. Blair emphasised that “while hurricane straps are required for timber roof construction and play a critical role in fastening rafters and other roofing members to the wall plate to resist wind uplift during hurricanes, proper installation, correct rafter spacing, adequate anchoring of wall plates and strict adherence to the building code are equally important”.

He, therefore, encourages tradesmen, contractors, and young people to enrol in HEART programmes to gain certification aligned with national standards, noting that strengthening the skills of the construction workforce is vital to improving Jamaica’s disaster resilience.

“Before we build physical structures, we must invest in building the people who construct them. As a training institution, HEART is being mobilised even further on our mandate of training and certifying tradesmen so that they are able to carry out construction in accordance with the building codes,” Mr. Blair stated.