Since its inception, the Competency-Based Training Fund (CBTF) pilot project has provided funding to 25 partnerships and awarded some BBD$14 million to train up to 4,000 persons by the end of the project.
This is according to Manager of the CBTF, Anderson Lowe, who was speaking to the media on Tuesday following an assessment of the training partnership between the St. George Farmers??? Marketing Co-op Society and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), at IICA???s headquarters, Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael.
The training programmes, he noted, covered a range of occupations, including animation, hospitality, furniture making, management and customer service, massage therapy, amenity horticulture, stevedoring, garment manufacturing, and photo-voltaic installation.
At least 14 new occupational standards have been developed by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council to support training initiatives developed under the CBTF.
???A number of training institutions have now been approved as assessment centres and are now qualified to deliver competency-based programmes,??? Mr. Lowe revealed, adding that this had created a demand for trainers, assessors, external verifiers and internal verifiers.
According to him, to date, 1,600 trainees have registered for training programmes under the Fund and are at various stages of completion.
joy-ann.gill@barbados.gov.bb