Barbados will not be left behind when it comes to creating the kind of workforce to adequately deal with emerging and changing technologies.
Henderson Eastmond, executive director of the Technical Vocational Education and Training Council (TVET), said the island was about to place greater emphasis on training in the areas of energy and information technology as those sectors continued to expand.
Speaking during the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (BCSI), Eastmond said that TVET was in the process of setting up a committee “to see what needs to be done and what resources we have”.
Adding that there was not much time, Eastmond said the task ahead would not be an easy one but the organization would be doing what it could to ensure the workforce was prepared.
“Government has just said it is going to revolutionize the transport system by bringing in hybrid buses. That is new technology [and] will call for new training. Already a lot of the new mechanics can’t deal with the new cars because they don’t understand the ultrasonics. Before we get up to scratch with that, the hybrid vehicles are going to come and they have already begun to come,” he said.
“In terms of photovoltaic, there are two standards being developed on that and we are hoping to, in the near future, do one on wind turbine because what you may find in households is a combination of the two to provide the energy needs.
“So we are going to be concentrating on that and we will have to work together with the training institutions and the particular sectors. That is one we will have to set priority on as things happen,” promised Eastmond. (MM)
