University College of Barbados (UCB) Aims to Address Technical Education Challenges, SJPI Principal Highlights

The much-talked-about University College of Barbados (UCB) could help ensure that would-be technical students are not turned away due to a lack of space, the head of the nation’s leading technical school said on Wednesday.

When created, the UCB is expected to integrate the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI), Barbados Community College (BCC), Erdiston Teachers’ Training College (ETTC) and Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB).

Since first mooted at the turn of the century when Prime Minister Mottley was education minister in the Owen Arthur administration, the UCB idea has reached a framework for the organisational arrangements that was completed in 2008. Further work on creating the university is yet to begin.

SJPI Principal Ian Drakes told Barbados TODAY the UCB was revisited in a bid to transform the institute which is celebrating the 55th anniversary of its establishment as the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic.

“The UCB . . . we are looking very much at having that come back [as] part of the transformation from the initial education aspect,” said Drakes. “We are looking to collaborate where we can really increase the intake of persons for the different institutions, BCC, SJPI, Erdiston and BVTB as well, in terms of the transformation to University College of Barbados. So, therefore, yes, we are looking at reducing that aspect of turning away students because we realise that it is a very big challenge,” he said.

“We have been looking and working on but we believe there’s a need for a full university institution at this time to push the managing aspect of the number of students that really want to get into the different industries. What I would say to you is that the world has shown that technical education, education, and certification now is a gateway to employment and entrepreneurship.”

Drakes further emphasised the SJPI’s need to move beyond its Pine, St Michael base and return to the establishment of satellite campuses to address students’ commuting challenges.

He said: “We had a satellite at the Alexander School in St Peter, Princess Margaret [Secondary School in St Philip], the St George Secondary School . . . and we were very strategic . . . . We need to get back into having satellites again because coming to the Pine cannot be the only solution with the price of bus fare. For example, if you live in St Peter . . . you can find 16 people in St Peter. Why take two buses and come [here] when we can have these satellites?

“We have started something called the Barbados Construction Gateway initiative. What we have been doing is training persons for 12 weeks in that aspect of the traditional trades of carpentry and joinery using the satellites. We’ve been using St Leonard’s Boys’ School . . . . We have been sending persons to St Leonard’s Boys School to do electrical installation and so on . . . . [However] we need to have more partnerships with more secondary schools where we can use their labs after 4 p.m.”

As recently as the SJPI’s 55th-anniversary gala last December, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the UCB remained a “priority” for the administration, saying it was necessary to streamline the delivery of post-secondary and tertiary education.

“I never thought that the initial work which started as far back as August 2001, two months before I left the Ministry of Education, would take so long to be able to put us in a position of readiness,” she said then.

(RG)