UTech Annual Report 2018-19

Accredited by the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) ANNUAL REPORT 2018-2019 University of Technology, Jamaica 62 Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies Cont’d. CATALP has hosted two workshops, which were attended by members from the Universities of the Bahamas and Guyana. Collaborations/International Linkages FHI360/HEART: The School of Technical and Vocational Education continues to expand its partnerships with different organizations including FHI 360, HEART- NTA, and Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC). These partnerships have produced the development of new programmes. In the case of FHI 360 and HEART-NTA, the Associate of Arts Degree in Image Consulting and Fashion Styling programme and with FHI 360, the Bachelor’s Degree in Entertainment Arts and Technology programme. The partnership with the JTC forms part of a larger project where UTech, Jamaica is facilitating the pilot of the new ICT in Educators Course of Study for implementation in each teacher training institution in Jamaica. Part of this implementation includes UTech, Jamaica training in-service teachers in ICT Integration as part of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information’s implementation of its ICT Competency Framework (ICT-CFT) for teachers across the island. UTech, Jamaica has therefore signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a contract with JTC to facilitate the training of teachers. The CCCJ: Discussions have also begun with Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) to allow students from Community Colleges to upgrade from Associate Degrees to the Bachelor of Education Degree. SOTAVE is currently in the process of analyzing the curriculum of the community colleges to enable design of a programme that will facilitate students from these institutions to transition into our B. Ed. TVET degree programmes. Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC): Partnership with CXC has nowemerged as an important element to the overall operations of SOTAVE and UTech, Jamaica in a larger context based on the evolution of the CXC Associate degrees. This new development has sparked ongoing discussions between SOTAVE and CXC in an effort to ensure that SOTAVE is adequately prepared to facilitate the transition towards accommodating the Associate Degrees as part of matriculation of students into the undegraduate degree programmes. The discussions led to a meeting which was held at UTech, Jamaica on Friday March 22, 2019 with representatives from CXC. The participants analyzed the draft Design and Technology syllabus for the Associate Degree Programme. The UTech team included Dr. Junior Martin, Head of School; Dr. Dean Reid, Programme Director; Dr. Everton Lewis, Programme Director and Mrs. Rachel McFarlane, Senior lecturer. The team made several suggested changes to the syllabus which was accepted by the CXC team. Community Service Resource Centre – NWC Basic School Students from the Industrial Technology programme have been engaged in the construction of a resource centre at the National Water Commission Basic School. Foreign Languages – Ministry of Education, Youth and Information The Ministry of Education has engaged Mrs. Stephanie Anderson-Chung, Director of the Language Teaching and Research Centre, as a reviewer of Spanish texts on the book rental programme for grades 7-9. Mrs. Anderson-Chung was also among the set of teachers selected to teach tourism workers beginners Spanish during the period October 2018 and March 2019 under the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) project. The LTRC hosted a Foreign Languages (FL) Pedagogical Skills Transfer session on April 7, 2018 from 10 am to 2 pm in LT-50 or approximately 30 high school FL teachers. The event was facilitated by Mrs. Michelle Stewart-McKoy.