IDB Education Lead Specialist, Dr. Sabine Reible-Aubourg (second left) and officials on tour. (FP)
Government’s Skills for the Future Programme (SFTF) will come under scrutiny when officials from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) attend an Administrative Mission from Monday, December 4 to Friday, December 8, to assess its progress.
The mission, which is being executed by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, is held to review the status of various components of the programme which is supported by a US $20 million IDB loan. The IDB team, which will be led by Education Lead Specialist, Dr. Sabine Reible-Aubourg, is particularly interested in the status of the Competency-Based Training Fund (CBTF).
Under this Fund, grants are awarded on a competitive basis to partnerships between private sector organisations and training institutions, who present valid and approved initiatives for funding.
During the mission, IDB officials and representatives of the Ministry will visit, interact and follow up with several winning partnerships which would have gained funding from the CBTF.
Institutions involved in those partnerships include: the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology, The Career Development Institute, the Barbados Community College, Barbados Vocational Training Board, Williams Evergreen Limited, McEnearney Quality Inc, Roberts Manufacturing Limited, The Nature Care, Digicel Barbados Limited and Asymmetrix Consulting Inc.
Additionally, meetings will be held with the Barbados Statistical Service and the Caribbean Examinations Council. There will also be reviews of the School Improvement Grant which falls under Component 2 of the SFTF programme. The purpose of the grant is to provide additional training, teaching assistance and pedagogical materials in the areas of numeracy, literacy and TVET training. IDB and Ministry officials will also visit some of the schools which benefit from the grant.
Students who participate in the ‘A Ganar’ programme which uses a sports-based methodology to train selected students from chosen schools in core life skills as well as provide market driven technical and vocational training, will graduate during the mission on Wednesday, December 6, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael, at 6:00 p.m.
‘A Ganar’, an innovative programme which is Spanish for “to win” or “to earn”, also falls under the Skills for the Future Progamme which was signed by the Government of Barbados in 2012.