The Caribbean Examiner • Vol 9 • No 1 • May 2011

The Caribbean Examiner
Twinning TVET and CVQ Qualifications
• Occupational standards are used as the basis
for assessing achievement.
• Students progress through the programme
by demonstrating the attainment of specific
competencies.
I would dare say that this approach to
delivering education and training would be
more suited to some students who find it difficult
maintaining interest in traditional approaches
to education and training, either because of
perceptions of being ‘left behind’ or because the
content of the subject being taught does not offer
sufficient interest to them.
On another level, the competence-based
approach linked to the use of occupational
standards which were developed to match
workplace requirements ensures that students
are involved in training which is authentic
and therefore consistent with performance
tasks in the real world of work. The result is
that these students are likely to be more suited
for direct entry into the labour force. This is
supported by the fact that though the standards
and competencies are concerned with what an
individual can do or perform, the standards also
place considerable emphasis on the underpinning
knowledge associated with the skill and the
attitudes individuals are expected to use in the
work context. The pursuit of CVQs, therefore,
will provide individuals with the opportunity to
develop into well-rounded members of society.
Furthermore, the pursuit of CVQs also
impacts on the ability of individuals to trade their
skills in other Caribbean territories, since CVQs
are regional qualifications receiving support from
regional governments. Consequently, persons
possessing CVQs can travel and work in other
Caribbean territories knowing that the standards
to which they were trained have been agreed
to by members of Caricom. This therefore
provides a major plank toward realisation of the
CSME concept that has been an ongoing task of
Caricom governments.
What I am advocating is the pursuit of
TVET qualifications through another route,
one that takes account of the true nature of
occupations and allows students to develop and
master skills according to the level pursued.
These two routes to qualifications (academic
and technical/vocational) need not interfere
with each other, but may complement each
other ‘if ’ or ‘when’ the individual requires. Some
students may not be at all interested in pursuing
academic qualifications, but must still have the
opportunity to find a niche in good respectable
high paying technical and vocational disciplines
that are suitably certificated and recognised.
Consequently, aligning TVET qualifications
with NVQs is an approach that satisfies the
requirements of modern education and training
systems.
Dr Hamilton Jemmott
is a lecturer in
the Technical and
Vocational Studies
Bachelors Degree and
Diploma programme
at the Barbados
Community College.