Technical and Vocational Training Key to Economic Prospects – PM Holness

The Government is set to focus primarily on Technical and Vocational Training this year.

The announcement was made yesterday (Thursday April 5) by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

The move comes as Prime Minister Holness said technical and vocational training and competence are critically linked to the country’s growth.

“The truth is that our education system now is a binding constraint on our growth prospects,” said Prime Minister Holness.

The Prime Minister disclosed that Jamaica is lacking in sufficient trained labour while industries are growing at a faster rate which the country should supply.

“Technical and vocational training areas will be of focus. We have already started by merging the National Youth Service (NYS) and the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL) merging those two with HEART TRUST NTA and that is an important and strategic move to create a truly national training organization to include and to provide services for those members of our population who are not attached to any institution of training,” said Prime Minister Holness.

He noted that for the 2018/19 budget, Education received $101.6 billion compared to $98.9 billion last year.

“We are making improvements but it is not happening as rapidly as we would like to see or as we would need to attain the economic growth and job creation successes that we would like,” said Mr. Holness.

Mr. Holness further contends that there must be a shift to ensure Technical and Vocational apprenticeship.

“We must garner, we must hone, take charge of and train those young people because they can immediately provide in a short period of time the labour force that we need to drive the new growth industries in our country,” said Prime Minister Holness.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the Appreciation Function for former Principal of Spaldings High and Advisor to Prime Minister Holness, Alphansus Davis.

In the meantime, Mr. Holness expressed his gratitude for the contribution made by Mr. Davis to the education sector.

The Prime Minister charged the Member of Parliament, Richard Azan to write to the Minister of Education to formalize the request to rename Spaldings High in honour of Alphansus Davis.

“I am a better person to have benefitted from the guidance and direction and fatherly advice of Alphansus Davis. He is a humble man, he is an honest man, he’s a caring man, he is a committed man, and he is truly a great Jamaican,” said Prime Minister Holness.