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Lionel Town Training Centre

A training centre has been established in Lionel Town, Clarendon, by the Bethel United Church of Jesus Apostolic, in partnership with the HEART Trust/NTA.

Co-ordinator for the training programme, Dahlia Snowball, in giving an overview of the project, at a recent dedication ceremony on the church grounds in Lionel Town, said that the church had taken on the project, because "we are here for evangelism, for reaching out to our communities, and this is just one way of meeting the needs of our community members.

"She pointed out that the project began in October 2007, as an initiative of the church, offering training in Early Childhood Education (Level 2) and General Office Administration (Level 1).In July 2008, the HEART Trust/NTA endorsed the programme and in October 2008, in partnership with the training agency, Electrical Installation (Level 1), was added to the other two skill areas that were being offered.

Food Preparation (Level 1) is also offered to trainees.The training centre currently has on roll, 130 students, 40 of whom will be graduating in December, and a staff of 8 teachers. The students, who range from 17 to 50 years of age, are from the Lionel Town community and its environs, as well as a number of neighbouring communities.

Project Manager at HEART Trust/NTA, Wayne Battiste, pointed out that the agency currently has 111 community based training projects across the island.He explained that community based training is just one of the training programmes offered by HEART Trust/NTA, citing others, such as the institutionalised based training, and the enterprise or on-the-job training programmes.

Mr. Battiste noted that the HEART Trust/NTA programmes are being copied across the Caribbean. "In the future, you will be hearing about Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CQV). CARICOM has approved a number of our courses for CVQ status. We have made the move, because we are also trying to satisfy the international market," he said.The CVQ is a competency based programme, that is recognised in 77 countries across the world, including Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, a participant in the training programme, Claudine Blake, told JIS News that the HEART Trust/NTA "is doing a very good thing, to come into a community like this, where illiteracy is so very high. I think coming to this community is going to make a great difference for young people," she said.

Source : www.jis.gov.jm

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