EDUCATION Minister Shaik Baksh has proposed the introduction of a training levy on the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme. He made the proposal on Tuesday at the inauguration a US$9.6M Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) project to enhance TVET here, at the Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown .
Mr. Baksh said the proposition should not be seen as a new tax but rather as the means of maintaining skilled personnel in the Private Sector.
He said TVET) training is free of cost and the Private Sector remains a large beneficiary but his ministry will be engaging the latter on the issue, explaining that what is garnered from the charge will be used to maintain and retool the training institutions, among other things.
Baksh said the TVET programme is being tailored to meet the needs of the industrial and commercial enterprises and the Government will have to conduct a manpower survey to better understand what is needed by those agencies in the next 10 to 20 years.
This analysis, he said, will inform his ministry of the new skills areas that need to be developed and the outdated programmes that have to be eliminated.
The US$9.6M project will see the construction of technical and vocational institutions at Leonora, West Coast Demerara and Park, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara and some of it will be used on a number of sub-projects, including the retooling of TVET centres countrywide, training of instructors to deliver and the regional certification of the curriculum, a release said.
It said upgrading of physical facilities is a challenge and, while the CDB project will, to some extent, address this issue, there is need for another undertaking to replace obsolete equipment and rectify other needs at the technical and vocational institutions.
The release said CDB one will not only increase access to TVET but provide opportunities to build capacity, enhance skills and the human resource base to meet the national developmental goals.
It said the Ministry of Education has already implemented the mechanism, at the secondary level, to produce students for the technical institutions and work has started to make the local TVET programme compatible with regional standards.
The release said, at the secondary level, some 24 schools are offering the Secondary Competence Certificate Programme (SCCP) that is also being offered at six practical instructional centres.
This programme, which is currently being executed in fourth forms, will be introduced in third forms in the next school year, with the object of ensuring that students leaving school before the completion of the secondary cycle are equipped with a certificate that will make them employable in the job market.