Editorial | New language for TVET

Global trends underline the logic of renewed calls for Jamaica to strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET). However, it is not clear that policymakers, educators, or other participants in the discourse have found – or mastered – the language needed to make a compelling case to students for opting for TVET.

Indeed, this newspaper is concerned that too often the language employed may elicit the wrong message, reinforcing the very attitudes it is intended to change – the stigma surrounding technical and vocational education. Put another way, our fear is that TVET may, unintentionally, be framed as the province of backward students – those incapable of mastering “serious” academic work – instead of being recognised as a rigorous and valuable pathway for capable learners.

There is no claim, of course, that this formulation applies to the two most recent education figures to enter the discourse on technical and scientific education – Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology (UTech), and Darien Henry, principal of the Montego Bay Community College (MBCC). Their interventions, however, provide a platform for discussion not only about the value of technical and vocational education and the policies that should underpin a deeper embrace of TVET, but also about how the concept should be sold to a new generation of students. How do we make TVET – and the dignity of working with one’s hands, rather than through the professions – attractive to students who might, in fact, be well suited to it?

This is an issue raised by the Patterson Commission on the transformation of Jamaica’s education system, a report which – and the specific questions it posed – has unfortunately not received sufficient attention.

The Government, of course, says it is implementing the commission’s more than 300 recommendations. It gives periodic updates on progress, with implementation standing at 37 per cent at last count. That process, however, even to informed observers, feels more like a box-ticking exercise than a robust engagement with critical priorities.

In the report issued more than four years ago, the commission – led by the esteemed Jamaican historical and cultural sociologist – noted the long-standing positioning of TVET in Jamaica “as an alternative education for those who perform poorly in academics”.

“Improving the social status of TVET is important for its development and acceptance by youth,” the commission argued. “A vigorous marketing strategy is needed to inform potential students of the programme’s availability and its value for the acquisition of life skills and career advancement.”

“Presently, there seems to be poor investment in promotional activities,” the commissioners added.

SOME IMPROVEMENT

There may have been some improvement in the promotion of TVET, particularly by the Government’s training agency, HEART/NSTA Trust, since the document’s release in September 2021. But it is not this newspaper’s sense that the issue has been addressed with the breadth, depth, or creativity – or communicated in the language – that the circumstances demand.

Jamaica’s education crisis, and the context surrounding calls for a fuller embrace of TVET and STEM education, are well known and carry inherent tensions and contradictions.

Each year, more than a third of students complete their primary education either illiterate or functioning substantially below their age and grade level. Further, after five years of secondary schooling, around 60 per cent and one-fifth of students, respectively, fail mathematics and English in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. But the English outcomes mask a deeper problem with language comprehension. Failure rates are higher – up to 25 per cent – in English B (literature), which demands greater interpretive skills.

Beyond mathematics, students also struggle in other areas of the sciences critical to STEM education. Additionally, the formal economy is significantly short of technical skills. Over six in ten workers have no formal or certified training for the jobs they perform.

Although at a slower pace in emerging economies than in advanced ones, these problems are being exacerbated by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which are replacing – though in some cases complementing – traditional white-collar jobs.

BLUE-COLLAR TRADES

However, in many economies there is growing demand not only for advanced skills that enable and complement AI, but also for blue-collar trades that AI systems cannot perform. For instance, in the United States, the home-improvement chain Lowe’s has pledged to spend US$250 million over the next decade to help train 250,000 plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and similar skilled professionals to fill shortages in the trades. Indeed, it is estimated that the US construction industry will need around 350,000 additional workers this year, plus another 106,000 by 2027.

In Jamaica, post-Hurricane Melissa reconstruction is likely to heighten demand for skilled tradespeople.

It is against this global background that UTech’s Dr Brown called for an end to what he described as the “false hierarchy” in Jamaica’s education system.

“The stigmatisation of TVET has to end because there is TVET all around us,” he said. “We live in a time of profound disruption – technological, climate, economic, and social – and in the midst of crisis lies opportunity: an opportunity to rethink education, to innovate, and to ensure that Jamaica’s young people are prepared not just for the jobs of today but for the world of tomorrow.”

MBCC’s Dr Henry framed the argument similarly: “TVET builds applied capacity. University education deepens analytical capacity. Together, they expand national capability.”

That capacity cannot be built without skilled people who can properly decipher dimensions, read schematics, measure length or width, and read and comprehend instructions. That is the argument to be made for TVET.