MOU Training Programme Lauded

Employee of the Manchester Health Department, Janet Evans has expressed her appreciation for the skills she gained from a six-week course in cake baking and decorating, under the training aspect of the second Memorandum of Understanding (MoU 2) signed between the Government and trade unions representing public sector workers.
“The programme was very informative and very good, I have learnt a lot from that training,” she informed JIS News, adding that “the teacher was very good and motivated us so warmly that we successfully carried through our training”. The course was conducted at the Church Teachers’ College in Mandeville.
She further noted that “we learnt how to make different types of cakes and we learnt how to do the different stages of icing”.
Mrs. Evans, who was a member of a class of 26 persons from various organizations, said “it’s a learning experience. When you reach retirement age you can move on with a skill. Thank God that they motivate staff so that we can have a skill to live on when we are through with our work”.
Emphasizing that she was very grateful for the opportunity, Mrs. Evans said she would use her hew skills “as a stepping stone after I reach retirement .next year .to help me along that I can motivate myself to keep active with my baking”.
The training programme, which began in July 2004, with the signing of the first MoU, has seen 18 training institutions partnering with the Cabinet Office to deliver 54 courses to 1,100 employees. These courses include computer basics, computer graphics, meeting and conference planning, etiquette and social graces, Spanish, entrepreneurship, garment and drapery making, cake baking, and decorating. In June 2005, the programme was expanded to five other parishes and to other categories of workers and public sector organizations.