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Gaining NVQ Certification in Amenity Horticulture was a proud moment for this teacher (centre) and students of the St. Lucy Secondary School. (C. Pitt/BGIS)?? |
Twelve Secondary School students are Barbados’ first recipients of a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in Amenity Horticulture Level 1.
They are Shaquille Waithe, Timothy Archer and Adrianna Scott-Braithwaite of St. George Secondary; Shaquono Boyce, Joshua Deshong, Shaulon Collymore and Jamal Jackson of the St. Lucy Secondary; and Brandon Cox, Jabarry Spencer, Joshua Murray, Calvin Carrington and Mario Sealy of Grantley Adam’s Memorial.??
They received the awards yesterday during the closing ceremony of the Youth in Agriculture Farm Programme at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Baobab Towers, Warrens.
And, according to Executive Director of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council, Henderson Eastmond: "This means… the students now have the knowledge, skills and attitude needed to meet the standards
required to work at the entry level in Animal Husbandry, Sustainable Farming and Amenity Horticulture".
Furthermore, he said that NVQ certification was proof of job competency, adding that the TVET Council was extremely proud of the students’ success, since this occurred under the NVQ and Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) Expansion Programme.
While congratulating the students, he explained that his organisation partnered with IICA in hosting an intense hands-on 10-week summer project, designed to enhance the participants’ knowledge, skills and competence in agriculture, horticulture, sustainable farming, animal husbandry and agribusiness.?? The programme built on the theoretic principles that students would have gained at school.
The Executive Director stressed: "It is by training to recognised standards, that employers, and indeed all of Barbados, will reap the benefits of having a truly world class workforce that leads to improved performance and productivity, which helps to make our country more competitive, regionally and internationally."??
Moreover, he noted that the Youth in Agriculture Farm Programme was a "valuable vehicle by which the TVET Council could achieve its mandate of promoting a competence-based TVET system in Barbados as a key means of workforce training."
Fifteen students from the St. Lucy Secondary, St. George Secondary and the Grantley Adams Memorial took part in the pilot programme.