Education

TVET Council Announces Barbados Team For WorldSkills 2024

The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council (TVETC) has announced the Barbados team that will compete at the 47th WorldSkills Competition, WorldSkills Lyon 2024, which will take place from September 10 to 15, in Lyon, France.

The announcement was made today by Technical Delegate for the WorldSkills Lyon team, Dario Walcott, at the office of TVETC, Hastings House West, Balmoral Gap, Hastings, Christ Church.

Team Barbados will see Sarah Gilkes-Daniel at the helm as team leader, with the following competitors in their various disciplines: Nathan Daniel – Automobile Technology; Hollyann Bayley – Car Painting; Moriah Hill – Cooking; and Saida Shepherd-Jones – Restaurant Service.

Each competitor will be accompanied by an expert in each area: Wayne Maycock (Automobile Technology), Negas Alleyne-Browne (Car Painting), Chef Peter Edey (Cooking) and Roderick Prescod (Restaurant Service).

Acting Executive Director of the TVETC, Wendy McClean, stated that visitors to the WorldSkills Lyon competition will have a chance to access both high-level discussions and thought leadership, around skills via the WorldSkills conference, as well as the opportunity to see skills excellence in action.

Ms. McClean expressed gratitude to the WorldSkills member countries network, which provided opportunities for the Barbadian competitors to gain access to high-level training, as well as international competition experience.

She said the competitors underwent a series of training activities and assessments as part of their preparation and selection for the competition.

“The training schedule also included the opportunity for competitors to practise their skills and participate in many competitions overseas as a result of invitations from other WorldSkills member countries, and for this we are grateful. This has helped to provide the squad with much needed competition experience, which is expected to help psychologically prepare them for the WorldSkills beyond 2024,” she stated.

According to Ms. McClean, those competition opportunities included an invitation from WorldSkills China to participate in the second Belt and Road International Skills competition, which was held in China in June 2024; the 2024 Skills Canada Automotive Skills Invitational and the Canadian Status Skills Painting Global Challenge, both held in July, and the recently concluded Skills Canada Cooking and Training competition in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Competitors have also been undergoing high performance training locally, with Dr. Janelle Chase-Mayers and her team at Re-Engineering Well-Being Consultancy, which included mental skills training and physical training.

Caption: Front row, left to right – TVET Council Executive Director (Ag), Wendy McClean; Minister of State, Ministry of Education, Sandra Husbands and Chairman, TVET Council, Dr. Albert Best pose with the Barbados team for WorldSkills Lyon 2024. Back row, left to right – Sarah Gilkes-Daniel; Wayne Maycock; Negas Alleyne-Browne; Nathan Daniel; Hollyann Bailey; Moriah Hill; Saida Shepherd-Jones; and Dario Walcott. Missing are Chef Peter Edey, and Roderick Prescod. (TVET Council)

The WorldSkills Competition, the largest international skills competition, is organised every two years under the aegis of WorldSkills International.

WorldSkills Lyon 2024 will see 1,500 competitors coming from 65 countries and regions competing in 64 skills to demonstrate their competence and mastery. Barbados became a WorldSkills member in 2011. (PR/GIS)

Education

2024-2025 Academic School Year Started Today

Following the in-progress planning week for administration and teachers, the 2024-2025 school year will officially started today Monday, September 16, for students.

According to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, there will be 38 weeks of instruction for the new academic year.

The Michaelmas term (Term I) will run for 13 weeks. During this term, there will be Teachers’ Professional Day, occurring on Friday, October 25. There will also be a mid-term break from Thursday, October 31, to Friday, November 1, 2024.

The term will conclude for students on Thursday, December 12, 2024, and for teachers on Friday, December 13, 2024.

Following a three-week vacation, the Hilary Term (Term II), will begin on Monday, January 6, for teachers and Tuesday, January 7, 2025, for students. This term will also have 13 weeks of teaching with a two-day break occurring from Thursday, February 20, to Friday, February 21, 2025.

The term ends Thursday, April 3 and Friday, April 4, 2025, for students and teachers, respectively.
Term III, also called the Trinity Term, will run for 12 weeks. Teachers will resume on Tuesday, April 22, while students will return to the classroom on Wednesday, April 23. There will be a one-day mid-term break, on Friday, June 6.

The school year officially ends for students on Thursday, July 10, and Friday, July 11, for educators. (PR/GIS)

Education

BECCS Workshops On Résumé Writing & Interviewing Techniques

Barbadians seeking to learn how to write résumés and perform well on job interviews, can do so when the Barbados Employment and Career Counselling Service (BECCS) hosts two workshops, later this month.

The workshops, to be held on Tuesday, September 24, and Wednesday, September 25, will both address Résumé Writing and Interviewing Skills.

They will be conducted in the Amphitheatre, 1^st Floor, Warrens Office Complex, Warrens, St. Michael, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Applicants may call 535-1535/47/48/59; 256-2290/832-0532/262-6498/832-0480, by Friday, September 20, to confirm their interest.

Education

Financial Literacy Facilitators Enhance Skills

The 17 facilitators for the National Financial Literacy Programme’s (NFLP) schools’ component, FLITE, have been given an opportunity to enhance their skills and become more effective in the classroom.

A one-day FLITE Facilitators Enhancement Training Workshop, which was conducted by Inspire Leadership Solutions Group, was held recently at the Warrens Office Complex.

Programme Coordinator for the schools’ component, Corey Worrell, explained that the workshop had several objectives, including developing and refining core facilitation skills to create dynamic and inclusive learning experiences.

“Additionally, our aims were to strengthen team-building skills to enhance collaboration and communication among facilitators; equip facilitators with innovative strategies and tools to effectively engage learners in the FLITE Programme, with a particular focus on experiential learning; and foster a deeper understanding of the diverse learning needs of participants to ensure an impactful programme delivery.

“This will ensure that all facilitators are adequately prepared to deliver the FLITE Programme and maintain a level of consistency in our standards of execution,” Mr. Worrell said.

Managing Director of Inspire Leadership Solutions Group, Dario Richards, described the financial literacy facilitators as “excellent”, and pointed out that his organisation was “enhancing their skills” so they would be effective in the classroom.

Mr. Richards outlined that the four main topics covered during the workshop were the journey of change; effective facilitation; experiential learning; and team building.

Stating that change is a journey, the Managing Director noted that within it, there are core milestones. With regard to effective facilitation, he pointed out that facilitators were different from teachers, and they therefore needed to have the requisite skills to be effective in the classroom.

“Experiential learning is our (Inspire Leadership’s) core training style. Persons learn by not just sharing content or PowerPoint slides, but engaging in activities and games, in discussions and debates, so people don’t only have theory but they have experiences,” he stated.

Underscoring the importance of the one-day training, Mr. Richards continued: “A facilitator’s role is to carry individuals on a journey of change…. So, I think this is important because you’re introducing new financial literacy content into a school setting, which for some may be easy to grasp, while for others it may not be such an easy topic to grasp, depending on their background.”

Mr. Richards stressed that it was necessary to tap into all the different learning styles to meet people “where they are at”. (PR/GIS)

Caption: Participants of the one-day FLITE Facilitators Enhancement Training Workshop which was conducted by Inspire Leadership Solutions Group