Experts needed

Dario Walcott, Technical Officer at the TVET Council has called for industry experts to be part of the occupational standard process.

According to him, “TVET develops Occupational Standards which is a description of the competencies that persons will require, but we need industry experts. We need all types of industry experts, the world is going towards robotics, greening etc. Anyone involved in these areas; we need their help developing occupational standards. We invite people to come to working groups and if people can’t come... we are going to ensure that everyone is working to the correct standards then we need the support of the public to help us develop occupational standards.”

He was speaking to The Barbados Advocate recently at Courtyard Marriott at the launch of the “Caribbean Rising Stars in Beauty Competition 2018”.

He revealed, “I found that there has been an increase in the demand for training and more so TVET, we have grown a lot in the last couple of years and I think that is so because people are now understanding the importance of training for a specific job, and the importance of vocational skills. I think if we are going to prepare for changing times and different working environments, that people need to be trained for specific jobs. In no way am I knocking academics but work environments want persons to be work ready.

There are Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQs) offered in school programmes. When you apply for job they say you need experience. What is good about the competency-based approach is that you actually assimilate the work environment so that you have theory and the actual work practice. You are assessed based on internationally recognised occupational standards, to be deemed competent. The thing about the CVQ programme is you need to be competent in all of the performance criteria and in all of the underpinning knowledge and skills. It is not just pass or fail, you need to demonstrate competency in all of the areas.”

Walcott added, “At TVET we are looking to expanding, there is a programme called “World Skills” which is the world’s governing body in terms of vocational skills, they use occupational standards to govern their competition. What we are going to do, is to take those internationally recognised standards and work along with the institutions to ensure that our local standards are up to those standards.” (NB)