$15.2M for Laventille Education Centre

Stressing that for too long there had been a dearth of training activities in certain parts of the country, Science and Technology Minister Colm Imbert announced that Government yesterday  allocated $15.2 million for equipment for the Laventille Technology and Continuing Education Centre. Cabinet also agreed to proceed with the hiring of the necessary trainers and supervisory staff for its MuST (Multi-Sector Skills Training) programme, the Minister said. The programme would train 12,000 persons in the first 12 months of its operation. He also announced that Government was considering to establish a training centre in Chaguanas. Imbert was speaking at  yesterday’s  post-Cabinet news conference.

The minister who said government could not be accused of ethnic bias in the establishment of the training centres, noted that government also planned to establish skills-training centres in Palo Seco and Sangre Grande. Skills-enhancement training was already on the way at the Macoya Facility of the Metal Industries Company and Government had doubled the enrolment of students at the Debe Automotive Centre in South Trinidad, he noted, stressing:  “We have a national spread.” We are looking all over the country in terms of where we would put training centres,” he said, adding that a Government was considering putting centres in Chaguanas, Galeota and in the South-Eastern and South-western parts of Trinidad as well as Diego Martin and San Fernando. We have to be national in scope because the demand (for training) is so high.”

Noting that the MuST programme was massive, Imbert said:  “I don’t think that anything of that scale has been attempted before in Trinidad and Tobago.” He said Cabinet agreed that 66 persons in various disciplines — technology instructors, regional coordinators, placement officers, career guidance officers, should be employed. It also agreed to the creation of a number of short-term contracts for persons who would ensure that technology instruction across the various projects being offered by the Government meet the necessary standards. He added that there would be a new category of instruction —  life skills development — and that 30 facilitators were to be hired for this component.

The programme will begin on June 1. “We are confident that the first batch would be placed for training in industry then and we would be meeting contractors and other stakeholders in the construction industry over the month to start allocating places for trainees because it is a work-based training programme,” Imbert stated. On the Laventille technology and continuing education centre which is being built at the Old Fernandes building, the Minister said it would start operations in September 2004. The Centre would give disadvantaged youths from the East-West corridor, instructions in badly needed skills — welding, fabricating, machine shop training, carpentry, joining, furniture making, automotive skills, maintenance, arts and craft, masonry, plumbing, air-conditioning and electrical installation.