REPRESENTATIVES OF the country's national training organisation, HEART Trust/NTA, are working hard to break the unfair perception that the institution only caters to dropouts, or those who were not bright enough to make it into the mainstream education system.

According to Karen Redwood, career development officer at HEART Trust/NTA southwestern office, the aim is to effectively re-educate students to accept that technical-vocational training is essential for pursuing a career in the business environment.

Redwood was speaking at a Gleaners' Editors' Forum in Mandeville on Wednesday on identifying employment generation and opportunities for young people in central Jamaica.

According to Redwood, HEART Trust is at the bottom of the educational rung, "In terms of who we accept and how we accept them, which is part of the reason we have this concept, there is the culture that HEART Trust is for dropouts, or those who just never made it."

Kimona Hudson, marketing and public education officer for HEART/NTA, southwestern region, said this mindset was coupled with the view that skills training, in areas such as agriculture and clothing and textile, was for 'dunce people', or underachievers who were not capable of handling the challenges of academia.

"I think one of the main problems is that we have a cultural bias towards TVET (technical vocational education and training) in Jamaica," she said.

Hudson, who is also a product of HEART/NTA, with a Level Two certificate in agricultural studies, said people often asked her why she had decided to pursue agriculture. "And these are educated, university people, who you think should know better," she noted.

What many individuals do not know, she said, is that when HEART graduates go overseas they are readily accepted into the workforce and are seen as top performers, but are looked at differently at home.

"Even though we have been the national training agency for over ten years, it has still been very difficult to break the perception," she said.

Redwood further pointed out that with a tightening job market, persons who had been trained with a skill were usually able to create their own opportunities and employment. "We realise that training and certification are critical to our nation's survival," she said.

Hudson said a part of HEART'S realignment thrust is to focus on promoting the institution as a viable option for students seeking tertiary education.

In this respect, the school's tertiary arm, the Vocational Training and Development Institute (VTDI), has begun to expand its role in order to provide training, not just for instructors for the TVET system, but for persons at the tertiary level.

A.T.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com