INTRODUCTION
Vinsave has been the backbone of Early Childhood Training and Education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is a voluntary Non-profit organization committed to the development of children, youths, families and community through early childhood care, parenting and community development programmes and to influence national policies that benefit children.
Vinsave has been offering programmes in Early Childhood Development and Training for a number of years in keeping with its Mission. The training programme was established in 1964 and a number of persons both locally and regionally have been trained over the years. Some of the trainees have been certified by the National Council on Technical Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET), Jamaica, while others received a nationally recognised institutional certificate.
PARTNERSHIP WITH SkYE
Delegates at the head table at the Early Childhood graduation
Consequent to the outreach of SkYE Country Coordinator, Vinsave became a training provider in which it was contracted to train twenty (20) persons, drawn from Childcare Centres throughout the island. Two of the trainees on the course were themselves attached the Vinsave Childcare Centre. Accordingly, the agency served not only as a training provider but also as an employer.
In outlining the importance of the programme the Director, Janice Fraser, stated: “The Training Programme will give the student necessary skills and knowledge for working with the young child in the child development centres, and to be able to fill the need for trained Childcare Practitioners in private homes and other industries.”
SKILLED CHILDCARE PRACTITIONERS
A release from Vinsave stated that the training, which was funded by the Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE), project offered the students both theoretical and practical knowledge and experience in Childcare and Development, Parenting, Community Development and other related areas.
It said that the Early Childhood Centres throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to which the women are attached, are in a better position to offer quality programmes for the stimulation of the young children under their care as a consequence of the training received.
Shimika Pope is a person with a disability (PWD) – phocomelia syndrome – and one of the persons who participated in the course. She is currently employed by Vinsave and had this to say, “I am now better prepared to perform my duties as a result of the training and to contribute to maintaining the high standard of childcare and development which Vinsave is accustomed to delivering.”
The Director has expressed appreciation to SkYE for supporting the training in which she intimated would have otherwise eluded many candidates due to financial constraints. She lauded the fact that as a training provider and employer, it allows the agency to have all is employees suitably trained and certified, which contributes to the benefit of its operation. Director Fraser expounded on the vision of the Vinsave going forward which is: “to be the leading institution in providing best practices in early childhood care and training for the development of the Caribbean child by empowering and partnering with trainers, families, communities and organisations with the collaboration and support of government and other agencies.”
FACTS
Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) is a four-year, UKaid funded programme to provide certified skills training for 6,000 disadvantaged young people, including those challenged by disability, in four Eastern Caribbean countries: Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The Programme will develop a more productive and inclusive workforce in sectors with good economic growth potential.
SkYE is supporting national training authorities and training providers to make systemic improvements to the development, delivery and quality assurance of technical, vocational education and training (TVET) in the four focus islands through targeted capacity building.
