Gadsby-Dolly: NTA, ACTT can guide students

EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly has challenged the National Training Agency (NTA) and the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) to ensure that Trinidad and Tobago students pursue courses that are accredited when they go to university or other tertiary institutions.

She was delivering the feature address at the opening of the NTA and ACTT’s new office at D’ Collosseum, Crown Point, Tobago, on September 10.

The St Ann’s East MP spoke about the plight of one of her young constituents who enrolled at university in Jamaica but realised that the course she wanted to pursue was not approved for government assistance for tuition expenses (Gate), because it did not have the necessary accreditation.

She believes such issues could be avoided if the work of the NTA and ACTT was embedded in the minds of students and citizens.

Gadsby-Dolly said, “So I throw out a challenge to NTA and ACTT to ensure that our young people get it into their spaces – and you know we have to forcibly enter their spaces, but we need them to have this on their mind.

“So NTA and ACTT should not be abstract concepts to our young people. They should understand the role of these organisations and how they impact on their ability to capitalise on the investments the government is making in terms of our tertiary education.”

She said both organisations must have a greater footprint.

“We have to do a little more. Redundancy is important. Sometimes, the information is there but they are not seeing it. We know that is a big problem in our country. We have a lot to offer but there are certain target audiences who just don’t see.”

Gadsby-Dolly said both the ministry and THA can also assist in spreading the message “so that our young people make their decisions for further education better informed. These things are critical.”

Earlier in her address, the minister stressed the importance of quality in education, saying TT must strive to attract foreign students to the country.

“Our citizens are supposed to be able to go abroad and survive and thrive and be at the top, and we must also be able to welcome other persons from other countries into our educational space. Educational tourism is a big thing and quality is at the fundamental core of that.

“So if we can offer quality education and if the ACTT and NTA can make the strategic partnership that allow persons to see study in TT as a viable option, then that is an area of development that we must explore. And it starts with the quality. It starts with the organisations that police the quality of our education.”

Gadsby-Dolly said the NTA and ACTT are critically important in facilitating excellence.

“When we can say to others that we will export quality professionals to you, then that quality has been certified by someone. And it must be a reputable organisation. I think we are distinguished in that respect as a small nation and as a region where we know that our UWI (University of the West Indies) degree is worth something, our Costatt (College of Science Technology and Applied Arts of TT), our UTT (University of TT), these are worth things. Our NESC (National Energy Skills Centre) certification.

“They are worth something because we have a regulatory body that is doing the job of making sure that they are recognised and our students are not disadvantaged when they go into a global space.”

Gadsby-Dolly especially thanked the NTA and ACTT for focusing on apprenticeship standardisation.

“Apprenticeship is a very fundamental way for knowledge transfer and skills transfer from the professionals into our younger people who would have studied the technical parts and need that practical experience, especially in skilled labour.

“So when we have that standardisation of the quality of apprenticeship, that is important. Because once you have somebody passing through a programme, you want to be able to know they have the skills they are supposed to have and only when there is someone, a gatekeeper, ensuring that quality was delivered, we can assure ourselves of this.”

Gadsby-Dolly said quality must form part of TT’s DNA.

“That has to be a part of it because you cannot develop into the country that we want to be without a professional workforce that has the quality to move us forward.”