Experience Jamaica

WorldSkills International is a not for profit membership association open to agencies or bodies which have a responsibility for promoting vocational education and training in their respective countries/regions. WorldSkills International operates worldwide and is politically and denominationally neutral.

WorldSkills International provides a unique means of exchange and comparison of world-class competency standards in the industrial trades and service sectors of the global economy. The continued growth of WorldSkills International attests to the fact that traditional trade and craft skills along with the newer technology multi-skilled vocations make an essential contribution to the economic and social well being of peoples everywhere.

As a free standing, non-political organisation WorldSkills International provides a cost effective means for international government and industry cooperation in achieving higher standards and status for vocational education and training on a worldwide basis.

Jamaica joined the WorldSkills International Organization as a Full Member in May 2004. Since then we have experienced tremendous growth.

We have:
• Staged three National Competitions in Kingston, Jamaica in November 2003, March 2005, and April 2008
• Participated in three WorldSkills International Competitions Helsinki 2005,Japan 2007 and Calgary 2009. We had, at each time, four competitors in Web Page Design, IT Software Application, Cooking, and Ladies’ and Men’s Hairdressing
• Created awareness of the National Skills Competition activities across Jamaica. Achieved a greater degree of acceptance from the Private Sector
• In 2006, the National Skills programme was re-branded to WorldSkills Jamaica

Primary objectives of WorldSkills Jamaica:
• Promote Vocational Education and Training through healthy competition
• Promote benchmarking of the Vocational Education and Training system to assess output quality
• Showcase skills, knowledge and engender positive attitudes within the Vocational Education and Training system nationally
• Contribute to a globally competitive Jamaican and Caribbean workforce

WorldSkills Jamaica (WSJ) is extending its reach and has influenced the appointment of a WorldSkills representative to the Board of the Caribbean Association of National Training Agencies (CANTA). Our vision is to have the Caribbean fully integrated through a common skills respect culture and reinforced through healthy competition. In 2008, the CANTA were non-medal participants in the Jamaican National Skills Competition. Our ultimate vision is for all members of the recently created Caribbean Single Market to participate in a Caribbean Skills event similar to EuroSkills or AseanSkills.

The Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Trust, Jamaica ’s National Training Agency, (HEART Trust/NTA) was established in 1982.  In 1991, the Jamaican Government determined that a National Training Support Service should be created within HEART Trust to co-ordinate, fund and develop the programmes necessary to produce skilled workers for the Jamaican economy. Hence the HEART Trust/National Training Agency was launched in 1991. HEART/Trust NTA is financed through a compulsory 3% payroll deduction levied on qualified private sector firms. This is supplemented by assistance from international partners.  Our organization is the facilitating and coordinating body for workforce development in Jamaica and is an agency of the Ministry of Education. We provide access to training, competence, assessment and certification to all working age Jamaicans and offer career development and employment facilitation services island-wide. Training is offered through Institutions run by the HEART Trust, Community Based programmes and Private sector enterprises. We operate 28 formal technical vocational and education training (TVET) institutions across Jamaica , and partner with more than 100 community project. We also work with more than 600 companies to deliver training and certification solutions on the job.

The National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and training (NCTVET), acts as the quality manager of the TVET system.  It develops competency standards and assessment instruments, provides certification to individuals and accreditation to TVET institutions, programmes and registered training organizations. NCTVET is ISO 9001:2000 certified.

As Global Industry Partners we are already individually involved in education and training initiatives in our various markets. This affords us the opportunity to get feedback from our customers, industry partners, associations, labour unions and educators on what is needed in workplace skills. It also allows us to provide feedback to government and education on industry trends, practices and technology that might impact curriculum and the facilities and equipment needed.

And what we are seeing is a gap between the traditional skills and those that are needed today. There is a transformation happening in the traditional skills and a development of many new skills plus the merging of the two together. Then there are developing countries and the emerging markets such as China, India and Eastern Europe. They are a unique challenge since the technologies and infrastructure being deployed often leapfrogs the current main stream technologies and requires new skill sets, training personnel and locally trained workers.

Many of the skill sets and types of workers needed are also infl uenced by corporate productivity, sustainability and investment goals and the need to think lean, green and have a “team” approach.

This is also creating a global problem that goes beyond just skilled labour shortages and the right training from traditional college programs. It is not only an issue of bringing fresh young workers into the job market, but retraining and ‘re-skilling’ the current workforce as well, who are often not ready for the new way of doing things.

Collectively, as Global Industry Partners, we see WorldSkills as our so-called – portal - into the world that is establishing a value for skills as the global currency, and building the international skilled workforce with many of the traits mentioned. We can have a much greater impact through the development of best practices and standards that can be leveraged around the world in all industry sectors. Our future economic health is dependent on the skilled workforce and that’s why we are here: simply put, there is no economy without skilled workers.