BARBADIAN STUDENTS who have a keen interest in developing technical and vocational careers can now acquire a technical-vocational qualification called the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ).
This new qualification was revealed yesterday by acting chief education officer Laurie King at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, where he addressed the opening ceremony of the National Career Showcase spearheaded by the Barbados Association of Guidance Counsellors in association with the public and private sectors.
King stated that with the assistance of the Technical Vocational Educational Training (TVET) Council and the Caribbean Examinations Council, the CVQ was a workforce certification delivered within the context of general education in schools and was implemented through a pilot programme which has already started in nine secondary schools in four areas: carpentry, electrical, cosmetology and masonry.
King further explained that the newly introduced qualification, which would be expanded to other areas in the future, would add value and currency to many of the skill programmes offered by the technical and vocational institutions and to those students interested in pursuing such studies in schools.
“This qualification will take a person from a certificate to bachelor’s and master’s levels and beyond. Some of our children have performed remarkably well and have now become well trained in a number of areas that have contributed to the shaping of our society. This Government recognizes and applauds these successes, but we need to applaud all of our skilled persons who have engineered and redesigned our thinking through technology and vocational education. We are equally proud of you,” said the education officer.
Amidst the hundreds of students from secondary schools who rushed to a number of career booths where they sought to find answers to their questions and queries from disciplined career professionals, vice-president of the Barbados Association of Guidance Counsellors, Alicia Barker-Grant, told the WEEKEND NATION that she and other guidance counsellors observed in their respective schools that some students were “not fighting for self-development”.
She stressed that “even in getting students now to look to apply to college you have to really push them. You have to work with parents to get the children interested in getting applications to meet deadlines. I think it is because our young people seem to acquire things so easily that they think they don’t have to fight for it.
“And then we get from parents I am going to give my child what I didn’t have. Even though the parents are not able to afford it they are still giving the children what they want them to have than what they need. As long as they can go to Chefette or go out to a fete they are okay – they are not going to worry about what is going to happen in the future,” she said. (AH)
