PIOJ Growth-Inducement Strategy - Planning Institute of Jamaica

Trust/NTA established over 30 major partnerships, which resulted in the expansion of
access to training nationally. Approximately 60,623 were trained in post-secondary
education in the academic year 2008/09, an increase of 12.7 per cent over the previous
year.
3.3 With regard to special education, the Special Education Curriculum was delivered
to approximately 4,400 students. This was done through two types of programmes:
Formal School-based Programmes and Home/Community-based Programmes.
4.0 Identified Gaps in the Education and Training System
4.1 In 2009, the number of trainees enrolled in HEART Trust/NTA programmes was
103,000 with 60,000 graduating. In the same year, 64,000 persons were enrolled in
tertiary institutions, with 14,151 graduating. Despite this level of enrolment in such
programmes, the data show that 80 per cent, or over 800,000 workers, are without
certification. Of the first-time job seekers, 70.2 per cent have no vocational, technical or
professional qualifications. About 20.1 per cent of Jamaican adults are illiterate. Another
15.0 per cent possess only basic numeracy skills. Some 142,000 youth are outside the
education system and labour force, of which 5.0 per cent did not go beyond Grade 9 69 .
4.2 In the 2008/09 academic year, the net enrolment rate (NER) for Grades 7-11 was
79.8 per cent. This figure can be further broken down into two categories, namely Grades
7-9 (which recorded a NER of 87.0 per cent) and Grades 10-11 (which recorded a NER
of 68.4 per cent). This indicates that more work is needed to keep youth in school,
especially at the upper school level of the secondary system. In the same year, only 64.7
per cent of the 234,557 subject entries in the CSEC examinations attained grades I – III,
with approximately 16.2 per cent of students failing to attain the Grade III or higher in
any subject.
4.3 Based on the details described above, the main identified gaps are in programmes
geared to meet the following needs:
1) to re-engage and certify the large pool of potential high school drop-outs
2) to train and certify a large cohort of at-risk youth who are outside the labour force
3) to re-train a large pool of displaced workers mainly from the Construction,
Mining, Manufacturing, and Agriculture industries.
5.0 Recommendations to close the Gaps
5.1 Displaced Workers: Institute programmes targeted to groups of displaced
workers. A relevant example is the Sugar Area Development Plan for which GOJ
receives European Union support to re-train and certify displaced workers in the sugar
69 Fox, Kristin (2003). Mapping Unattached Youth in Jamaica (Draft), IADB.
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