Call to overhaul skills training

The Barbados Economics Society (BES) wants an overhaul of the island’s current apprenticeship programme.
Suggesting many of the areas were obsolete, the programme too restrictive in the skills covered, and it was too heavily skewed in favour of men, the island’s economists said they had some suggestions for improving the public/private sector initiative.
In its latest blog on Expanding The Apprenticeship Programme, the economists said Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB)-administered programme needed a shake-up.
Among the fundamental changes, the BES recommended that training and work opportunities under the apprenticeship programme be extended to technical programmes offered by the Barbados Community College (BCC) and the University of the West Indies (UWI). (GE)