Tertiary Education and Skills Training Minister Fazal Karim says T&T will initiate discussions with the Antigua and Barbuda Government to establish a National Energy and Skills Centre (NESC) in that country. Karim and Antigua and Barbuda Education, Science and Technology Minister, Michael Browne, made the announcement yesterday. The minister lauded NESC for achieving its highest intake of 1,800 students in its 17 years of existence.
He said NESC’s success continued to be commendable and was something that should be shared with the region. It was in that vein Karim offered Browne the opportunity to collaborate with NESC chairman Feroze Khan to have an NESC centre established in Antigua and Barbuda. While he said there had been no formal discussion on the establishment of the centre Karim said he was prepared to collaborate with the Antigua and Barbuda Government entirely.
Karim added: “We will also be happy to receive students from Antigua and Barbuda and in some cases to consider one or two scholarships to assist students from (Antigua and Barbuda) at NESC. “It is really the collaboration and co-operation and to make our resources available.”
He said he invited Browne, who is in T&T for the Caricom and the Caribbean Association of National Training Agencies (CANTA) launch of the Caricom Regional Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Strategy, to NESC’s orientation ceremony so he could have a first hand view of one of the ministry’s training institutions.
Browne, who also addressed students at the ceremony, welcomed the minister’s initiative and said “not only do we want to learn, we want to sample the experience, the minds, the best skills and create a network.” He said the Antigua and Barbuda Government was looking forward to sending students in T&T to study. Browne said he would be awarding scholarships from his government to make sure their students come to T&T.
“I want that we can have a minimum of five students a year coming to do these programmes,” he added.