UTECH, HEART Trust/NTA Sign MoU

KINGSTON — The University of Technology (UTech) and the HEART Trust/NTA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will facilitate students at one institution participating in programmes offered by the other.

Senior Director for Institutional Relations at UTech, Claire Sutherland, told JIS News, following the signing ceremony at UTech's Technology Innovation Centre,n Kingston on  Friday (July 22), that the MoU should strengthen their relationship and allow them to partner to provide more opportunities for students.

She noted that under the agreement, Heart trainees will be able to matriculate to UTech. Additionally, UTech students will be able to get certification of competence in a number of areas at Heart, even after graduating from UTech.

"It's really broadening the opportunities for our students. Not just young people, but you have persons in the workforce who would like to go back to school, re-qualify and upgrade their qualifications. Or any of those persons who would want to start a business and need that additional competence and training to assist them with doing that," she said.  

Ms. Sutherland said the partnership would also assist high school students, who are unable to immediately matriculate into the tertiary education system.

"The opportunities we will be providing will help to prepare some of those students; make them more ready for the work force and, eventually, come into the tertiary education system," she said.

Executive Director of Heart Trust/NTA, Dr. Carolyn Hayle, described the signing as a "historic occasion" representing "a ladder of opportunity."

She said the collaboration provides options for persons who were not able to matriculate to UTech, but who can now pursue programmes in areas such as vocational training, professional development and entrepreneurship.

"It also provides people, who do not have a lot of money, access to tertiary education on their own terms, at their own pace and on their own time," she said.

UTech's President, Professor Errol Morrison, said the collaboration "made a lot of sense".
"It opens our vista for student supply and commitment of programmes that you (HEART) need, that we can offer, and vice versa," he said.

By Alecia Smith, JIS Reporter