Staff of the National Sports Council (NSC) are ready to take sports training and preparation to another level, thanks to the certification of its team members.
The certificates were presented in a ceremony on Tuesday at the Wildey, in an effort to raise the standards of training for Barbadian youth.
The NSC staff members gained qualifications across the board, in Supervisory Skills, Supervisory Management, Groundsmen Certificate of training and Caribbean Vocational Qualification in providing security services Level 2.
Minister of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, lauded the NSC for its work and committed to ensuring the department has the appropriate equipment to ready its staff. “I have asked that a couple of things be put in place to ensure that your journey in terms of how you treat to our young people, as it relates to sports, is made so much easier.”
“So, for the coaches I have asked that we acquire six video cameras to make it possible for you to look at video after your training to ensure that some of those things that we need to correct within our youth population is there. I make no jokes about it that you have a role to play in terms of what the next generation should look like in terms of our sport and discipline.”
Minister Griffith continued: “I have asked that the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which persons are paying excessive amounts of money to have done for youngsters who you will train to reach a level that they can access scholarships, be managed and owned by the Ministry, so that $450 and $600 will not come from a poor person’s pocket who cannot afford to send their youngster to these SAT’s training.”
In his remarks, Chairman of the NSC’s Board, MacDonald Fingall, reminded the staff that there were no small jobs at the NSC and that everyone was important no matter what department they worked in, from auxiliary staff to coaches.
“Today we are going to grasp the concept that all jobs are noble, every department of the NSC will be represented today so all staff members will know what every department does,” Mr. Fingall stated.