BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN an effort to achieve the goal of enhancing and building capacity within the UNEVOC Secretariat, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Jamaica made a generous donation to the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council (TVET) in St. Kitts.
The donation was in the form of equipment - a Dell notebook, a Dell desktop computer, a projector, a carrying case, and all of the related software packages, valuing at approximately EC$14 000.
The handing over took place at the old Education building on Cayon Street by Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission, Antonio Maynard to the Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Patrick Welcome, on Friday (Sept. 23).
Principal TVET Officer, Fritzroy Wilkin explained that TVET sought the assistance of the UNESCO Jamaica Cluster Office for the Caribbean following the TVET Secretariat in the Ministry of Education becoming an official UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in December 2010.
“This development,” he said, “would allow the International and global systems to collaborate more closely with our own National UNEVOC Centre in order to transform common support and cooperation to us here in St. Kitts and Nevis.”
UNESCO Jamaica subsequently provided a set of equipment, as their contribution to the newly developed UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre.
In accepting the donation, Dr. Patrick Welcome thanked the UNESCO Jamaica for their charitable donation, and assured that the equipment will be put to good use.
The St. Kitts and Nevis TVET Council was launched in March 2006, as part of the regional initiative to establish TVET Councils to monitor skills training. In October 2010, a Secretariat was established for TVET, the secretariat has since been approved as the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre for St. Kitts and Nevis.
The TVET Council has been mandated by the Education Act, 2005 (Part 7) of St. Kitts and Nevis, to perform a number of functions including preparing plans for technical and vocational education in accordance with national policies and economic needs; ensuring that agreed plans for technical and vocational education are implemented; and establishing standards for technical and vocational education; establish training priorities, qualifications and accreditation among others.
