(From left) Simon Bartley of WorldSkills London 2011, HEART Trust/NTA's executive director, Donald Foster; Kevin Mullings, chairman of National Organising Committee, National Skills Competition; Guy Mallabone, WorldSkills Calgary 2009; and Gregory Wint, project manager, WorldSkills Jamaica 2008, during the closing ceremony at the National Indoor Sports Centre in St Andrew on April 25. - contributed
Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall, Prime Minister Bruce Golding and officials from CARICOM have given top marks to the HEART Trust/National Training Agency on its recent staging of the third National Skills Competition.
The competition, held under the theme 'Celebrate Skills, Discover your Potential', was held at the National Arena in St Andrew from April 24-25.
Official patron Sir Kenneth, while officially opening the event, noted that the celebration of skills and the placing of vocational education in the national spotlight was an excellent move by the National Training Agency. The governor general issued a call for the nation to give vocational training and education the respect and prominence they deserve. He said Jamaica needed to develop a trained and certified cadre of skilled professionals who could offer world-class professional services, both at home and overseas.
Qualifications
In closing the event, Prime Minister Golding echoed the sentiments of the governor general by highlighting the increasing demand globally for individuals with top-rated vocational skills. Golding said the Government hoped to reach a point in the education system where each student leaving high school would not only have his or her academic qualifications, but vocational qualifications as well.
He urged young people to embrace vocational training and education because they offer a wide variety of high income-generating career choices and the flexibility to become an entrepreneur.
Executive of the CARICOM secretariat in Guyana, Myrna Bernard, said the National Skills Compe-tition was an important intervention in the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which facilitates the free movement of skilled labour. Bernard pointed out that the larger the pool of skilled personnel in the region, the better it would be for Caribbean economies.
Regional skills competition
She noted that preliminary talks were already taking place to explore the possibility of a regional skills competition.
In welcoming delegates and participants to the National Skills Competition, chairman of the HEART Trust/NTA, Dr Nigel Clarke, said technical and vocational education and training must be marketed and promoted as one of the important tools for sustainable development in Jamaica. Clarke said it must also be used to position the Jamaican workforce as being of international repute, and a model which will attract both local and overseas investors.
He also noted that the skills competition continues to give HEART an opportunity to engage the youth in productive activities which will no doubt have a domino goodwill on the country.
"The event offers our youth hope and empowers them to use their skills to be ready for the job market or to create their own jobs," said Clarke.
Also speaking at the event, executive director of the HEART Trust/NTA, Donald Foster, said he firmly believed the creation of a high-quality workforce would lead to greater attraction of foreign direct investments to Jamaica.
