Persons here would soon be able to receive certification from the prestigious City and Guilds of London in just about any area of their profession.

This means that persons who have worked for years in their profession but who did not have certification, could now be assessed and graded to the levels of an associate, bachelor or master degree based on that person’s level of competence.{{more}}

Trevor Hamilton and Associates has been delegated authority in St Vincent and the Grenadines, for City and Guilds in London to carrying out this assessment programme and they are currently training four local persons to be the official assessors.

Imparting these assessment skills was trainer Donald Rose who said that while the City and Guild certification was “not” a degree, their certification was recognized in over 120 countries.

Rose explained, “A teacher who has a certificate showing their competence from some 20 years ago can now have their new certification from City and Guild to show that they have the competence and knowledge to be a principal. That principal if has the skill, is like a manager who is leading 30 teachers, 300 students and a $5-million per year budget, but some do not have any actual certification indicating their managerial abilities. However, City and Guild would assess that person and issue them certification that shows that person is competent because of their years of on the job experience.”

Rose said that with governing bodies such as the World Trade Organisation, the Caribbean can no longer stay in the comfort zone, but must face the competition of other skilled persons.

He pointed out, “If we are not certified, people from overseas would get our job, even though we have the skills and talent but we don’t have the proper certification, we would be the last person to get the job.”

The four persons being trained to be assessors for City and Guild are; Iris Mounsey, Anthony Bullock, David Hutchinson and Ishmael Shortte.

For more information call 456-1905. (SG)