Govt moves to modernise apprenticeship training model

The Occupational Training Act, which governs the apprenticeship system, is expected to be overhauled this year as the government updates the technical and vocational training framework in response to modern learning styles and workplace demands.

Minister of Labour Colin Jordan revealed the plans during a panel discussion at the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (BCSI) Business Forum on Friday at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill School of Business.

He later expanded on the initiative in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

Jordan disclosed that he and Minister of Training and Tertiary Education Sandra Husbands had presented the outline of a new apprenticeship framework to a tripartite social partnership meeting for the construction sector earlier this week.

He said: “We just Wednesday presented the outline of a new apprenticeship framework to a social partnership meeting, but it was a construction sector meeting, tripartite. Presented for the first time in that kind of a format.”

The proposal was well received, he said.

“We are pretty advanced. Everybody who was there was happy with the progress we’ve made. They have a couple of tweaks based on the discussion and then [we will] proceed to implement, but that focus or this renewed focus on apprenticeships and recognising that it is really essential for now.”

Jordan explained that the current apprenticeship framework has not kept pace with modern developments and needs to be updated to reflect current realities.

The Ministry of Labour and the Ministry responsible for Technical and Vocational Training have worked together to develop an updated apprenticeship framework which will include micro-credentialing and a modular approach, he added.

“The ultimate idea is to demonstrate that technical and vocational training is on par with other modes of improving oneself, including on the academic side. So we are going to be upgrading the apprenticeship system; we need some more resources, we have to work out the inspection process.”

The aim is to make training more practical and responsive to modern learning styles.

“We’re going to be working with organisations to make the apprenticeship really work so that people are able to be job-ready, not just from learning theory but from actually being in there working along in an organisation, three or four days a week, doing some schooling a day a week or a day and a half a week and reaching the point where at the end of three years you don’t just have an academic qualification, but you are almost at the skill level because you have done the apprenticeship; it is well structured, well supervised, and tailored for how people learn nowadays, which is not necessarily linear.”

Legislative changes would be required to implement the new apprenticeship model.

“We’re leading it from the Ministry of Labour, but it’s going to be anchored in the Ministry of Technical and Vocational Training,” Jordan said.

The Barbados Vocational Training Board and the TVET Council would continue to play leading roles in implementing the framework, while the Ministry of Labour’s People Development Unit would continue to lead the overall people development strategy in collaboration with the ministry responsible for technical and vocational training, he added.

Jordan said he believed the legislative changes can be completed before the end of this calendar year.

(LG)