A Heart Trust/NTA student engrossed in her job. The national skills training institute says it is committed to providing skilled labour to adequately meet the needs of today's industry. - File
THE COUNTRY'S premier training institute, the HEART Trust/NTA, is rejecting comments made by the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA) in a recently published study that the institute has "lost its way".
In a hidden-cost study published late last month, the JMA said HEART was to share some of the blame for what it described as the absence of a pool of adequately skilled recruits for the productive sector.
However, in its defence, HEART says the study, which was conducted by consultants Focal Point Limited, documents several inaccuracies about the work status and role of HEART.
Industry demand
HEART says, for example, that it has been providing the workforce with skilled workers in response to industry demand, noting for instance, that over the past five years it has trained 1,745 people in furniture and cabinet manufacturing.
That increased its output "at an average of 36 per cent per year in response to demand," it argues.
"We have also trained 6,796 persons in appliance/industrial machine/maintenance repair. Our output in this area has increased by 8.2 per cent," it adds.
On the converse, it has also decreased output in areas where demand has fallen. The apparel and sewn products skill area, HEART points out, is one area in which it has decreased output by approximately 2.1 per cent annually due to the fall in demand for these skills.
Training is provided, year-round, through 26 institutions and approximately 100 community-based organisations and on-the-job-training and certification as well.
Rubbishing comments
"The latter yielding 4,564 trained persons in 2007/2008," HEART says.
The institute is also rubbishing comments made in the study that many of the Vocational Training and Development Institute's (VTDI) instructors have either emigrated or had their skills replaced by "a burdensome bureaucracy (whose) focus (has been) on reinventing the certification wheel".
HEART says as a recognised Jamaica Employer Federation institute, it has enjoyed stability in its instructor cohort.
"It is not accurate that most, if not all, of these instructors have separated or emigrated. In fact, more trained instructors are available now more than ever because of the work of the VTDI," HEART argues.