New CVQ pathway opens for PTFTC-TCL grads

Future participants in the Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Challenges, Transforming Children’s Lives (PTFTC-TCL) programme will have the opportunity to earn certification aligned with Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) standards beginning in September, the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council has announced.

The council’s technical officer for programme development, Akil Thompson, told over 300 students at the tenth-anniversary recognition ceremony of the PTFTC-TCL programme at Sandals Royal Barbados on Wednesday that, beginning with the next cohort in September, the programme will be aligned with national and regional occupational and employability standards.

“The TVET Council has been working very closely with the program coordinators to take this program to the next level,” he said. “All future participants of this program will not just receive a certificate of participation, they will be formally assessed and certified against the Caribbean Vocational qualifications.”

Participants in the PTFTC-TCL programme. (photo by Shamar Blunt)

Future participants will be required to complete new assessment and portfolio requirements:

“Come September, this programme will go through another transformation. You will not only be assessed, but you’ll also gain some additional skills.

“You’ll learn how to document your own learning and document your progress and professional development to build portfolios of evidence, and by aligning this programme with these employability and competency standards, we’re ensuring that the hard work that you students put in into mastering your personal brand, business etiquette, and interpersonal communication skills translate into a powerful tangible asset that you can place on your resume.”

CVQs are awarded to people who demonstrate skills and knowledge against occupational standards validated by CARICOM and applicable across the region.

“One of the important impacts of that is that it enables free movement of skilled labour across the region. So if you see an opportunity elsewhere in the region, if you have a CVQ, you can bypass a lot of the roadblocks and red tape that you would encounter trying to establish yourself someplace else.

“So this is a significant development and the core skills is a qualification that we offer at TVET Council.”

He explained the TVET Council’s Core Skills qualification framework.

“There are six core skills, and all the key skills would be communication, application of numbers, and use of ICT, which is information [and] communication technology. And the wider skills will be problem-solving, working with others, and developing your own knowledge and skills.

“Participants in this programme will be certified against working with others at levels 2 and 3, communication at 1 and 2, and problem solving at 1 and 2 as well.”

He added: “In our TVET ecosystem, we refer to these core skills as employability skills, but I see them as way more essential than that. These are skills for life.”

(LG)