The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training will be launching a new National Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) policy soon.
This announcement came from Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw who also added that the ministry would be placing greater emphasis on practical or vocational learning so that it better complements the existing system.
Bradshaw who was speaking at the closing ceremony of the inaugural World Skills Barbados Juniors (WSBJ) Competition at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, where she also declared that Barbados can no longer afford to overlook persons who fall through the cracks of the education system because their learning style was better suited to a more practical and integrated approach to learning.
She said the TVET Council was taking further steps to ensure that Barbados benefits from the International WorldSkills Programme.
The Minister indicated that at the WorldSkills Americas General Assembly, which took place October 21-24 2019, Dario Walcott, Chairman of the WorldSkills Barbados Local Organising Committee and Barbados’ Technical Delegate to WorldSkills International, was elected Vice Chair of the Technical Committee.
“This move is particularly significant for the TVET Council and the WorldSkills Barbados. Not only will it provide Barbados with the opportunity to better understand the culture of WorldSkills Americas (WSA) but it will also give us a leadership position in the organisation which will help to support Barbados and other countries in the region,” she said.
The Minister congratulated all those who participated in the WorldSkills Barbados Juniors Competition in the areas of cooking, cabinet making, electrical installation and hairdressing.
The Best of Competition Award was won by Jalani Yearwood of St Leonard’s Boys School who placed first in electrical engineering with 92.8 per cent, the highest overall score in the entire competition.
The Champion School award was taken by Queen’s College which received the most combined points.
Eden Edgehill of Queen’s College placed first in the cabinet making competition with 85.6 per cent, while his schoolmate Deryka Grazette took the top position in the cooking category with 84.8 per cent.
Tamea Small of Graydon Sealy Secondary placed first in the hairdressing competition with 57.09 per cent.
In his remarks, Walcott said the competition was well executed in its inaugural year and would now be held biannually with two new categories being added each time.
