1. Quality-Assured Certification: The Key to Greater Workforce Mobility in the Caribbean and Internationally 
Patricia McPherson, CARICOM Secretariat
Robert Gregory, Education Specialist
ACCC Conference
June 2, 2013

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE PART 1: SETTING THE CONTEXT TVET IN THE REGION
CARICOM (What is it, Why in existence)
The Birth of the CARICOM Single Market
Caribbean –Canada Relations
TVET IN THE REGION
In formal and non formal education
Its portability within the Free Movement of skills
Regime
TVET –The Answer? -

3. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
PART 2: ROBERT’S PART -

4. CARICOM The Caribbean Community
Established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas signed at the historic Chaguaramas Convention Centre, Trinidad and Tobago
4 July 1973

5. CARICOM: The Original Signatories
Jamaica
Hon Michael Manley
Barbados
Hon Errol Barrow
Trinidad & Tobago
Dr the Hon Eric Williams
Guyana
Hon Forbes Burnham

6. St. Vincent & Grenadines
CARICOM
CARICOM
Fifteen Member States
Antigua
& Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Dominica
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Montserrat
St. Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia
St. Vincent & Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad & Tobago

7. British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Turks and Caicos Islands
CARICOM
CARICOM
Five Associate Members
Anguilla
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands

8. CARICOM OBJECTIVES OF THE COMMUNITY include
Improved standards of living and work
Full Employment of labour & other factors of production
Enhanced levels of international competitiveness

9. Enhanced co-ordination of foreign economic policies
CARICOM
CARICOM
OBJECTIVES OF THE COMMUNITY include
Enhanced co-ordination of foreign economic
policies
Enhanced functional co-operation

10. The birth of the caricom single market and economy (csme)

11. CARICOM
CARICOM
The Treaty of Chaguaramas was revised to include the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, and signed by Heads of Government on July 5, 2001

12. January 2006 - Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas entered
into force through ratification by twelve Member States
January The CSM became
operational; six Member States
signed the Agreement
July 2006 – Six other Member
States signed the Agreement

13. Montserrat is awaiting entrustment
February 2008 –
Haiti ratified CSM
Agreement
- The Bahamas is not a part of the CSM -
Montserrat is awaiting entrustment

14. capital, technology, labour
CARICOM
The CSME:-
A single enlarged
economic space
Functional
cooperation
Macro-
economic and
sectoral
policy
coordination
Free movement
of goods, services,
capital, technology, labour
Common external
trade policy
Non- discriminatory
access to the region’s resources & markets for CARICOM
nationals
The Single Market

15. CARICOM
The CARICOM Community
The Member States of the (CARICOM) have responded to the economic challenges of globalisation and trade liberalisation by deepening the integration process through the creation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The free movement of skilled persons one of the main pillars of the CSME.
Issues of skill development through TVET and the portability of qualifications, have assumed renewed importance in positioning the Region for competitive participation in the global economy.

16. CARICOM
The CARICOM Community
common system and understanding of quality assurance issues
all levels of Education and Training, including TVET
In order to achieve this, there must be:
Regional Qualification Framework – articulates qualification and certification at all levels of Ed and Training

17. Member States Member States The CARICOM Community
committed themselves to free movement of nationals within the Community
Member
States
required to put in place mechanisms to ensure full and complete compliance
Member States
These steps are critical to the smooth operation of the free Movement of persons in which CARICOM Skilled Nationals can exercise the key principle rights to which they are entitled.

18. Household Domestics with a (CVQ) or equivalent qualification
CARICOM
CARICOM
University Graduates
Media Workers
Sports persons
Musicians
Professional Nurses
Teachers
Artisans
Artistes
Holders of associate Degrees or equivalent quals
Household Domestics with a (CVQ) or equivalent qualification
Persons eligible for Movement
The institutionalisation of a regional system of Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQ) is seen as a crucial element in facilitating the free movement of workers while also contributing to the enhancement of skills training in both institutional as well as on-the job settings. Such a scheme also facilitates the credentialing of skills for experienced persons already in the workforce.

19. Robert Gregory’s part

20. The Regional Strategy The Process
Bottom up - 12 National 3 Regional Consultations
Ensure integrity, respectful of contributions
Verification, ratification
Advocacy Strategy, lobbying
Importance of ownership and accountability
Bottom up, consulted with 12 countries, then ratified with 3 regional consultations, total of over 350 persons from all groups: industry, education, government, youth, all social partners: Employers, labour, Govt. (Education, Labour, Finance, Investment and Commerce) plus NGOs
Bottom up design to ensure integrity of content, respect and recognition of contribution made to Strategy’s content, verification and ratification of Country reports, ratification and endorsement of Strategy Framework and content with a higher level stakeholder community including
Ministers, University Heads, Lead Employers, Union Leaders and NGOs.
Design of a country level advocacy and lobbying strategy prior to COHSOD, an implementation plan with detailed accountabilities in each country and the Region.
The facilitating impact of a carefully cultivated and broad-based stakeholder ownership and accountability for “their strategy” and success at COHSOD and the implementation to come.

21. Difference from Previous Strategy
“Regional TVET Strategy for Workforce Development and Economic Competitiveness: Skills and Credentials--the New Global Currency”
Vision Statement: Sustainable economic prosperity through the creation of a globally competitive regional workforce enabled by a market-responsive education and training system
Difference from Previous Strategy
Economic not social domain
Focus on Credentials
Accountability
Implementation
Overview of Strategy
Title of Strategy: Regional TVET Strategy for Workforce Development and Economic Competitiveness
Byline: Skills and Credentials: the New Global Currency
Vision Statement: Sustainable economic prosperity through the creation of a globally competitive regional workforce enabled by a market-responsive education and training system
Difference from previous Strategy:
Solidly set in the economic rather than social domain
Focus on credentials as critical to international competitiveness
Example of Red Seal: how Caribbean workers were able to work in Canada with Red Seal
With Implementation Plan, accountability measures,
The plan is that each country would develop its own strategy based on the Regional one

22. 7 Pillars of the Strategy
TVET redefined and promoted as an agent of Workforce Development and Economic Competitiveness
TVET Integrated with General Education for life and livelihood
A CARICOM Training System
Labour Market Intelligence for Workforce Development
Career Guidance and Counselling
Instructor Training
TVET Financing: Public Private Partnerships
This is an overview: I will now go through these one by one.

23. 1. TVET redefined and promoted as an agent of Workforce Development and Economic Competitiveness
Shift from supply to demand-driven
High level skills, not ‘dunces’
Innovation and entrepreneurship
Focusing on practical skills, greater socioemotional development
Positive Marketing
TVET redefined and promoted as an agent of Workforce Development and Economic Competitiveness
Shift from supply to demand driven training
Recognition that TVET requires high level skill development
TVET is for everyone, not for ‘dunces’
Focus on innovation and entrepreneurship
(TVET model, with its focus on practical skills, as research Pat pointed to, leads to greater socioemotional development (employability skills) thus is more desirable to employers
Marketing of TVET needs to change, to show TVET in a modern light, leading to high skill acquisition and often, high paying jobs, and often lucrative self-employment

24. 2. TVET Integrated with General Education for Life and Livelihood .
Stop marginalization of TVET as ‘less than’
Ensure students graduate with some practical skills
Not dead-ended
“Education makes you trainable and Training makes you employable, while attitude keeps you employed”
TVET Integrated with General Education for life and livelihood
Stop marginalization of TVET as ‘less than’
Ensure students graduate from Secondary school with practical skills related to an area of demand in the labour market as well as necessary academic preparation for graduation.
“Education makes you trainable and training makes you employable, while attitude keeps you employed”
Ensure that TVET is not dead-ended; that there is a qualifications framework in place that allows students to move thr0ugh the education system

25. CARICOM Training System
Need to develop the regional Training system so each country can deliver CVQs
Need to train and capacitate smaller countries
Diagram
A CARICOM Training System
Need to develop the regional training system so that each country can deliver CVQs and they are transferable across the region
Need to train and capacitate the smaller countries so that they are not disadvantaged in the development and delivery of CVQs

26. A CARICOM TRAINING SYSTEM

27. 4. Labour Market Intelligence for Workforce Development
LMI needs to drive planning, evaluation, new program development
Modeled on ‘just in time, good enough’
Predictive
Sectoral
Involves multitude of means of collecting intelligence including priorities of gov’t, investment community, etc.
Labour Market Intelligence for Workforce Development
Labour Market Intelligence needs to drive TVET planning, evaluation and new program development
Modeled on Canadian ‘just in time, good enough’ labour market intelligence that is predictive, based on a sectoral approach and involves a multitude of means of collecting intelligence, knowledge of priorities of government, investment community, etc.

28. 5. Career Guidance and Counselling
Almost non-existent in Caribbean
Mostly personal, academic
Need new kind of counsellor
Knowledge of Labour Market
Self assessment tools and strategies
Unbiased towards academia
Service to workforce and students
Career Guidance and Counselling
Career Counselling almost non-existent in Caribbean institutions
Most counselling is personal or academic counselling.
Need new kind of Career Guidance counsellor
Knowledge of the labour market
Self-assessment tools and strategies
Unbiased towards academia
Career Guidance Services provided to students in schools and tertiary institutions as well as to members of the workforce

29. 6. Instructor Training
Instructors with current knowledge, skills and credentials from industry
“It’s easier to teach a plumber to teach than to teach a teacher to plumb”
Student-centred, competency-based
Standards
Flexible hiring practices
Instructor Training
Instructors with current knowledge, skills and credentials from industry
Lesson from the Canadians: “It’s easier to teach a plumber to teach than to teach a teacher to plumb”
Need student-centred competency-based approach
Need standards for instructors, flexible hiring practices

30. 7. TVET Financing: Public Private Partnerships
Need new models of financing
Ministry of Education can no longer carry entire burden
Strategies to engage industry
Applied Research, joint undertakings, contract training
Need Sector-driven public private partnerships
Industry, line ministries, education ministries and sector leaders and investors join forces
E.g. Megaprojects
Need new models of financing
Ministries of Education alone cannot carry the burden
Need new strategies to engage industry, build trust, work towards
Donations of equipment (Naming opportunities), land and expertise
Applied research, joint undertakings, contract training, exchanges, etc.
Need to develop sector-driven public private partnerships
Industry, line ministries (mining, transportation, etc.) and Ministries of Education join forces to plan for skills training sector by sector e.g. training in mining, logistics, etc.
Where megaprojects are planned, training should be identified upfront as a key component of the megaproject and funds should be set aside money to invest
Most often, training is a budget line in a megaproject: our job is to ensure it is used to invest in our citizens’ skill development to fill the positions

31. C-EFE Project Synergy between C-EFE and Regional Strategy
Project is assisting to:
Strengthen regional capacity
Develop 16 Canadian Caribbean institutional partnerships in sectors/programs of high priority in labour market
Model Canadian best practices
C-EFE Project
Synergy between C-EFE and Regional Strategy (good timing, shared priorities)
Project is assisting to:
Strengthen the regional capacity to plan and implement TVET: setting standards, training assessors, building portal for LMI and CVQs
Developing 16 Canadian-Caribbean projects that will advance the CVQ system of the Caribbean and at same time model Canadian best practices

32. Next Steps Implementation Accountability
Roll out of the Regional Strategy
Regular reporting and monitoring
In our consultations, the participants strongly insisted on increased emphasis on implementation and greater accountability for the new Strategy.
Therefore, in developing the strategy, we included Implementation Steps (24 in all) for each of the pillars.
In addition we set a five year time line to achieve the implementation.
We recognized that each country is at a different stage of development and has different challenges; therefore we are encouraging each country to develop its own implementation plan, in line with the Regional one.
The early results are most encouraging. Grenada has already done that and other islands are planning to.
It is quite amazing, in a culture that is not accustomed to rapid action and accountability, how the Regional Strategy is making an impact. It was obviously timely and of great need.