The process of accreditation is important in positioning Barbados for success in a changing global world.
This view was expressed by Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Sandra Husbands, who said that accreditation allows the country to be powered for the globe.
She indicated that Barbados wants to engage in the global space to develop a strong economy that can participate meaningfully.
Ms. Husbands was addressing education officials and stakeholders yesterday on the topic “Accreditation – Key to Global Participation and Economic Success”, at an Accreditation Workshop, at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, Aquatic Gap, St. Michael.
“We’ll be able to create a global education sector here in Barbados so that we can earn significantly from it, but it will also provide Barbados with a highly skilled force that can build businesses that can participate in the global space,” she stated.
She said that through accreditation, Government is seeking to “create global citizens with Bajan roots”. “It means that if we can create a people who are capable of creativity and innovation, Barbados can actually innovate in this new space, rather than just being recipients of what other people are doing. And by being innovators, we’ll be able to command the higher dollar on the global value chain.
“That means, unless you have the research, the innovation, and the investment to come up with the new ways and the new products, you are not going to be able to transition the world to a climate sustainable state, every single thing now must be done differently, which means it will shake up the entire economic order,” she told her audience.
Minister Husbands added that the journey to accreditation and global recognition must not be delayed, played with, or done in a “shabby way”.
She shared that Barbados must do like the rest of the world and look for, or identify opportunities to transition to the global platform, create businesses and create a workforce that can operate in that global space. Referring to countries like India, which sought to make its mark in medicine, and China, which focused on manufacturing, she said Barbados must do the same.
“People look and identify what were the opportunities on the platform and they went for it. We have to do that too…. We need to transition; we have to have a marriage. There’s a wedding and accreditation will marry us to that global economic space. That marriage must take place and must take place fast…. Accreditation is that doorway that will allow us to marry ourselves to the opportunities on that platform, and that is why it must not and cannot wait,” she stressed.
Ms. Husbands explained that there is a global emergency to produce skills across the world, and revealed that there is a major shortage in every country, including the developed world, for the skills that are necessary to be able to transition.
“Across the world, there’s a Global Skills strategy, this is why we have to upgrade everything we’re doing in the tech box space [and] everything we’re doing in services because this is where we’re going to make our money. This is where our children will get a future. They’re going to be millions of jobs available in that space. There needs to be a reskilling of people.”
According to the Minister, the responsibility of the Education Ministry is to understand what jobs are available so that persons can position themselves within the openings created and ensure that it prepares them to engage.
Ms. Husbands, who is trained in international trade policy, told the stakeholders that Barbados must be positioned to move into global value chains, attract the right investments to achieve this move, build the favourable trade agreements that will create the platform for it to be able to go into the global marketplace.
She also explained that the government has to spend money to prepare the country to attract the right investments. “After we put in all this and we cannot accredit our skills, and we cannot establish a platform in the global framework, we would have wasted time and money. So, we have to hurry. We have to look at new industrial and services sectors.
“If we can do that, we can give people good wages and give them sustainable employment. If we can make this transition, we can increase our government revenues so that it will pay the debt of what was borrowed, and it will stabilise your foreign exchange earnings as a result of earning more because you’re transitioning onto the platform.”