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“Barbados’ relationship with the WorldSkills international community has borne much fruit.”

This report was delivered by the Executive Director of the Technical and Vocational Education Training Council (TVETC), Henderson Eastmond at the WorldSkills Barbados Juniors’ (WSBJ) Future Skills Camp Media Briefing on Friday, September 30th, 2022.

Mr. Eastmond further asserted that in addition to Barbados’ access to the global WorldSkills occupational standards, opportunities were also being provided to local trainers and instructors. These individuals were given a chance to access training in Optoelectronic Technology (n.b. this is the technology that informs products such as LED lights, solar cells, and optical fibre cables, etc), Robotics, Mobile Application Development and Mechatronics.

The TVETC, via WorldSkills Barbados (WSB), has used its connections to the WorldSkills community to form close ties to the WorldSkills Americas programme. This has enabled Barbados to work to gain a better understanding of the WorldSkills Americas culture, seek to have a leadership position in the organisation to ensure that it is structured and able to support Barbados and the countries in the region, and learn from experiences and education and training models of other countries in the region.

“It is against this background, that we will be seeking to formalize our relationship with our colleagues at WorldSkills Dominican Republic / INFOTEP through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will benefit both of our countries via mutual exchange,” said Mr. Eastmond.

In addition, the Executive Director disclosed that Barbados will once again send a team to take part in the international WorldSkills Competition – i.e. the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition. Tonquanja Giddings and Jessica Cummins, who will compete in the Restaurant Service and Cooking skill areas, respectively, will be accompanied by their coaches Roderick Prescod and Chef Peter Edey.

He continued: Since the 2019 WorldSkills Competition, we have strengthened the preparation process starting first with the selection criteria which sees competitors at the WorldSkills Barbados national competition having to achieve 75% or more to be selected to a training squad.

“The purpose of this intensive preparation is to give Barbados the opportunity to develop a cadre of world class young persons who can meet global standards of excellence in highly skilled occupations, which leads to jobs and careers that contribute to economic growth.” He concluded.