Residents in Montego Bay Sensitized about NCTVET Programmes

Residents of Montego Bay were sensitized about the many programme offerings of the National Council on Technical, Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) at an exposition held last weekend at the Bay West Shopping Plaza.
Manager of the Information and Promotions Unit of NCTVET, Natalie Ferreira-Reid, told JIS News that the exposition was just one method employed to reach out to and inform persons about how they could become certified.
“We have planned a series of information seminars with schools and private training providers islandwide. Of course, we also participate in career fairs, we are also working along with the Social Development Commission (SDC) right across the island,” she informed.
Mrs. Ferreira-Reid said that visits were also arranged with employers and human resource practitioners and “this is done right throughout the year.” She expressed pleasure at the level of response to the outreach efforts.
She told JIS News, that with the coming into being of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), more persons were seeking to become certified through the Council’s National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQJ) programme.
The NVQ-J award is supported by a five-tiered certification system that has been adopted by CARICOM for use in the Caribbean region.
“The fact that the more and more they turn up at interviews and employers are asking for certificates, people are seeing the need”, she pointed out, adding that, more than 65,000 persons have received NVQJ certification since 1994.
Mrs. Ferreira-Reid told JIS News, that the NCTVET certification programmes were so structured, that persons already working and have acquired certain skills, need not leave their jobs to go into a training situation, as they could be assessed and certified on their jobs.
She said that the level of acceptance of the NCTVET certification was very high and employers were included in the programme by assisting to develop the standards.