Caribbean governments are being urged to increase funding to boost the delivery of science and technical education in the region.
Educators and other stakeholders attending the three-day Second International Conference on Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Caribbean, which wrapped up in Montego Bay on Friday, have called for Caribbean governments to increase funding to integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into TVET at all levels in education.
This comes against the background of research that shows 70 per cent of new jobs will require expertise in one or more STEM disciplines.
The educators and stakeholders have also recommended that TVET programmes among all TVET providers be strengthened; partnership and collaboration among TVET institutions and bodies in the Caribbean be improved, as well as acceptance of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) qualifications framework.
They also want better facilitation of opportunities for entrepreneurship and apprenticeship to match ‘thinking’ with innovative ‘action’.
The comments have emerged as Education Minister Ronald Thwaites announced on the final day of the conference that by the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, each student will have to sit a vocational subject to qualify for graduation
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