Dominica State College (DSC) will launch a new project on Friday, 8th January, 2016. The project named Youth Skills Development Pre-technology Project is designed to train under-prepared Dominican youth between the ages of 15 and 29.
A total of 60 youth will be trained in four technical and vocational areas for a total of 12 weeks. The four training areas are (1) ) Landscaping (2) Bar Tending (3) Maintenance and (4) Housekeeping.
The project is supported by many institutions internationally, regionally and nationally. It is funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Canadian Department for Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD) and the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICAN). The project is administered by CARICOM – Education for Employment (C-EFE) and delivered by the DSC in partnership with College of the Rockies (COTR) of Canada who themselves are supported by Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC).
Regionally, the project is supported by the Caribbean Association of National Training Authorities (CANTA). Locally, the project has been approved by the Ministry of Education Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council, Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association (DHTA), Discover Dominica Authority (DDA), The Ministry of Tourism and the Youth Development Division (YDD).
In addition to the technical skills, participants will learn many life skills including how to prepare reports, how to search the internet for information, how to solve basic numerical problems, how to communicate more effectively, how to serve customers well, and how to critically analyse information.
COTR and NSCC staff have been working with DSC staff to prepare curriculum and train internal and external facilitators to deliver the courses beginning on 18th January.
All the courses are at Level 1 of the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ). DSC’s goal is to guide each participant to achieve CVQ Level 1 in at least one component.
Some of the leading partners in the project will give remarks at Friday’s launching ceremony and participants of the training delivered by COTR and NSCC will receive certificates of participation.
This project is testimony of the mission of the DSC to reach out to every need for human resource development in Dominica.
This is a good initiative. Everyone was not meant to graduate and to be a doctor, lawyer, dentist, teacher, etc.
Some of those who attended high school and college may not have the aptitude to grasp this education at that level. It does not mean they are not intelligent. Everyone is intelligent to a certain degree. They may be better equipped for other type of courses and work.
Some years ago I heard about the vocational schools that youths who did not complete high school, college or university could enroll in. This is really giving them a second chance. Amazingly they could excel in the field they chose and obtain a good paying job.
I know of one whose child did not complete DSC. This may be the identical problem. I wonder if the parents are aware of it. I will inform them. At the same time I hope they are aware of it and enroll their child. This one may be technically savvy and would do well in this field.
Note some who love sports and have done well.
Why don’t they start focusing on offering Bachelors Degrees instead of those short certificate courses…..
This is all well and good, but what about training the skilled artisans that Dominica so desperately needs. I refer to the trades that require a six year apprenticeship – and then some. Real skills cannot be learnt in twelve weeks.
Would like to know whether Dom State College is running out of ideas, they are seen to be duplicating Youth Division.
I would think this is on a higher level than what you are aware of.