Regional technical and vocational education stakeholders gathered in Saint Lucia for a two-day Apprenticeship Summit, determined to prepare workers for careers in the green economy.
Hosted December 4-5 under the Skills to Access the Green Economy (SAGE) programme, the summit brought together educators, policymakers and industry leaders to chart a unified path for apprenticeships across CARICOM.
Perry Thomas, Executive Director of the TVET Council of Saint Lucia, emphasised the summit’s role in harmonising Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) across CARICOM through the Caribbean Association of National Training Authorities (CANTA).
Pilot programmes in Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Guyana, Belize and Jamaica have already laid the groundwork.
“We are here, able to have that discussion, take on the examples from what other countries are doing, rationalise what exists within regions, and come up with that framework that can be applied to Saint Lucia, to Grenada, to Antigua, to all member states of CANTA,” Thomas explained.
The summit aimed to rationalise these efforts into a common apprenticeship framework for all member states.
Pat Bidart, SAGE Senior Technical Advisor, underscored the meeting’s importance for skills development.
“There are people that are carpenters or mechanics, but they haven’t been trained,” she said. “So they know a little bit of the trade, but they need to know more. We’re looking at ‘how do we develop skilled tradespeople across the Caribbean?’ Housing construction will get better. Car maintenance will get better… a whole variety of areas like that.”
Organisers hope the summit sparks the type of passion that ensures each country develops a workforce equipped not just to meet today’s needs, but to advance the region’s green future.
The Canadian-funded summit was hosted at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay.
