Philipsburg, St. Maarten – Fourteen persons were successful in following and completing a Job Trainer training and are now certified job trainers. The Job Trainer Training was given by the Council of Education and Labor Dutch Caribbean (known as ROA CN) and focuses on equipping job trainers (personnel at the job training company tasked with supervising and guiding trainees) with the skills necessary to effectively guide students on traineeships.
The training was coordinated by the Division for Educational Innovation (DEI) and facilitated by Violet Duggins-Gumbs of the Council of Education and Labor Dutch Caribbean. The training was 3 full days and included lots of role play and interaction. In attendance were representatives from the business community, three NIPA teachers and two staff members of the Ministry of Education. As this is the first training of this type on the island, the training catered to maximum 15 persons. Recruitment for the training was done in collaboration with the NIPA and the invitations were extended to companies that offer traineeships to NIPA students. As St. Maarten is small, these companies also offer traineeships to students of other institutions therefore the benefits go beyond NIPA.
At the end of the training, the representatives of the business community were very elated that they were able to participate in such a training and stressed the need for more of these trainings to take place in the future.
As a follow up, the two staff members of the Ministry of Education and the three teachers of NIPA that followed the Job Trainer training will also follow a Train the Trainer workshop in July. After completion of the Train the Trainer, these persons will be equipped to facilitate Job Trainer trainings.
The entire project is financed by OCW funds made available via Usona.
