So far the technical and vocational education and training program has seen to the opening of two facilities in the Stann Creek and Cayo districts, with two more coming on stream shortly in the Corozal and Orange Walk districts. But while the Ministry is moving rapidly to establish the infrastructure, for the next two days, they be slowing down just a bit and taking time out to discuss the challenges that lie ahead.
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"It is very critical for us to remain engaged in the way forward. This is a seminar dealing with the challenges and opportunities that see as it relates to the way forward in technical and education training program. There are critical areas that we have to look at and the whole testing and certification of individuals who will be coming out of these institutes. We're working on the staffing of these institutes as we speak. The whole issue, for example, of the occupational standards that we have put in place for these individuals who will attend these institutes; what are the priority areas for the different districts, for example what are the needs in Cayo, what are the needs in Stann Creek, what are the needs in Corozal, Orange Walk, Toledo, and in Belize City; all of those things. We've had a long discussion about all of hose things so this is one in a series of seminars as we try pull all those things together.
It its absolutely important, absolutely critical. If you speak to any business person in the private sector, if you speak to people at BEL or BTL, they will say to you quite frankly that one of the greatest need they have within their organization is a lack of technical capacity; they want technicians. That doesn't mean they want only people who have Bachelor's Degree in engineering or even associates in some particular technical field, what they want are technicians who have practical training."
Qunce Francis, CDB
"Jobs are now requiring that persons are competent. They must have the knowledge and the skills and the attitude to be productive and people don't develop these things by themselves, we have to make special effort to train them, and technical and vocational training provides us the opportunity for training workers and potential workers in the correct knowledge, skills and attitudes to fill jobs in industry and business
The Caribbean is well behind the developed countries. For example our educational system is not producing the right skills and competencies that we require for the workforce and so we have to be making a tremendous effort to catch up now to make sure we have the skills, attitudes, and knowledge to fill the jobs that are now being created.
Right now there's whole lot of new opportunities coming up and a lot of the people currently unemployed cannot get these jobs unless they get these skills so its very important for us to move fast to get the skills and abilities so that all these people who unemployed can use the opportunities."
TVET is a forty million dollar project.
