The Technical and Vocational Education Unit

The Technical and Vocational Education Unit was formally established in 1975. This was influenced by the “Education Sector Survey” (1973), which recommended the implementation of “Student Counselling and Vocational Guidance Programmes.” Inter alia, this recommendation provided for “…the development of a strong unit within the Ministry of Education.” Consequently, Agriculture, Art and Craft (renamed Visual Arts), Business Education, Home Economics and Industrial Education were brought under one organisational unit.

The objectives of the unit are:

1. To provide the experience whereby students can attain a level of technical education and vocational training, which will satisfy the minimum entry requirements for tertiary institutions and the world of work.

2. To offer technical and vocational programmes that will be geared towards developing the types of skills, knowledge, attitudes, habits and values that are in demand in the society, and which will contribute to the nation’s productivity goals.

3. To foster the development of potential for self-expression, creativity and inventiveness that can result from the pursuance of a course of study in technical and vocational education.

4. To assume a major role in the development and implementation of teacher programmes that will produce the calibre of teachers who are qualified to contribute to the achievement of the foregoing goals.

The Mission Statement of the unit is:

“To plan, develop, implement and supervise Technical & Vocational Education Curricula in the formal system and to provide consultative services to other agencies in order to supply and strengthen Jamaica’s manpower requirements.”

Improvment

The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Improvement Project is a joint collaboration between the Governments of Japan and Jamaica geared at improving the technical, vocational education and training in Jamaica by using the José Marti Technical High School as a pilot school.

The project started in May 1997 and ended in July 2002.

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