THE Dunn, Pierre Barnett and Associates Limited, through its Chief Principal Technical Director, Clover Barnett, and Executive Director, Paulette Dunn-Pierre, is facilitating training for staff of the Government Technical Institute (GTI) in Competency Based Education (CBE). This five-day exercise is aimed specifically at gearing the educators with the capacity to deliver CBE to the students of the institution.

Chairman, GTI, Major General Ret’d, Norman McLean, the institution’s Principal Carl Benn, Director of Technical and Vocational Education (TVET), Sidney Walters, and the two officials from Dunn, Pierre Barnett and Associates Limited, a human resource development and financial management consultancy and training company of Jamaica formally opened the exercise Monday morning at the institution on Woolford Avenue.
Barnett explained that the session was focused on looking at the foundation and the historical development of CBE, after which trends in TVET, internationally as well as regional, covering also how the latter impact on nation building and economic development will follow.
Over the following days, the facilitators will look at how to assess and evaluate CBE delivery. Barnett said that by today, she and Dunn-Pierre will be spending time with the teachers looking at what preparations they need as instructors to be able to deliver CBE. The two will focus also on the environment that the teachers should create to allow the students to be competent at the end of the day.
For the reason that technology also drives education today, some time will be spent also today and tomorrow on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for CBE, focusing on the latest trends, the use of cell phone, the use of virtual reality and other technologies to deliver CBE, Barnett said.
The workshop will wrap up on Friday with the participants looking at evaluation in CBET.
“It is a very exciting workshop, and we believe that this particular approach is useful for education and training, not just for GTI, but as an approach that is being encouraged across the region.
“It is five exciting days, and at the end of the week, we are sure the participants would have had a full week, but one that put them a far way in making GTI the institution of choice for Guyana,” Barnett said.
Mc Lean said that the training complements capacity building of the teachers that is critical, and that will be addressed as the GTI Board moves to change the institution from a technical to a polytechnic one.
According to Mc Lean, even before the institution moved to introduce CBE, it was moving in this regard. He said that a committee was established with this aim, and it was chaired by the late, Dr. Dale Bisnauth.
The committee created a roadmap through which to start to progress to a polytechnic institute and established an acronym ‘SAFETY’, to focus attention on the critical issues which must be addressed in reaching this goal, Mc Lean said. SAFETY is S-Syllabus; A-Appropriate Training; F-Facility; E-Education Material; T-Training of Staff and Y-You.
He reminded the staff of how critical they were to the process and how aptly the five-day training fits in. “You are the critical factor in this change, if it is to be meaningful to do what we want it to do; so I am very happy to have had the opportunity to give you this exposure,” he said.
“You cannot discharge our vision of providing quality and relevant training to our young people if we are die hard, chalk and talk … the days for that have really gone. We have to address tools of our trade. The social media have overtaken young people…so we have to re-examine how we deliver our message; I hope that today and this week we would see that change in delivery,” he added.
Meanwhile, Walters told the teachers that the council would be with them not just in thought, but also in spirit, as it looks forward to the outcome of the training. He urged application of the training that will be learnt in the five-days to the works of the teachers.