Interment Operations CVQ Level 3 Certification Offered by KCDI Jamaica and HEART/NSTA Trust

The HEART/NSTA Trust, through the Kevoy Community Development Institute (KCDI) Jamaica, is now offering Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) Level 3 certification in Interment Operations for professionals in the burial services industry in the Caribbean.

The competency-based qualification programme offers participants the opportunity to become trained practitioners in the field.

Executive Chairman, KCDI, Dr. Donovan McLaren, told JIS News that the certification was developed out of the Institute’s identification of a training gap in the field and expands the current National Vocational Qualification (NVQ-J) Level 2 certification.

“KCDI identified a training need in the occupational area of interment operators, affectionately called ‘gravediggers’ within the space of Jamaica and the Caribbean, and as such, we partnered with the HEART/NSTA Trust to develop the first of its kind, the National Vocational Qualification (NVQJ) Level 2, and that would ensure that the gravediggers can now have a regulatory framework wherein they can be certified via HEART/NSTA Trust to be categorised from labourer to a skilled professional,” he said.

Dr. McLaren noted, further, that looking at the broader funeral industry set the framework for the development of the CVQ Level 3 certification.

“We’re taking into consideration [funeral home] managers and the supervisors and also owners. It is against this background the skill set was developed [and] we, therefore, re-engaged HEART/NSTA Trust, and the same level 2 was now scaled up to a Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), which is at a level 3. That CVQ now ensures that the persons here can now travel to anywhere in the Caribbean and apply the skill set,” said Dr. Mclaren.

The Interment Operations CVQ Level 3 certification is intended to make practitioners marketable across the Caribbean.

The programme covers essential skills, including grave preparation, health and safety procedures, transportation and handling of remains, cultural sensitivity, and post-disaster recovery protocols.

“It’s not only how to dig graves; it also speaks to the planning, the management, and the forward thinking of how cemeteries are developed and maintained across the Caribbean. In Jamaica we bury it under the ground, in other Caribbean states, they bury it above ground. This training modality speaks to how to manage these approaches in various spaces,” said Dr. McLaren.

The Interment Operations CVQ Level 3 is included in programmes up to Level 4, which are offered by the HEART/NSTA Trust free of tuition and administration fees.

Persons interested in enrolment can contact KCDI Jamaica at 876-792-4196, 876-373-5860 or via email at info@kcdijamaica.org.