CFBC to Engage More Adult Learners

(ZIZ News) – The Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College will use the recently launched Prior Learning Asessment Recognition (PLAR) programme to engage more adult learners in the Agri-business course.

Program Manager for the School of Access at the Nova Scotia Community College, Jennifer Archer is facilitating the PLAR workshop. She believes the tertiary level institution will be able to evaluate skills and knowledge that are learned outside of the formal learning environment to better place individuals who are interested in certain areas of learning.

She explained that Prior Learning Assessment Recognition is a process which is designed to recognize, for credit, all of the life learning that individuals come to work and education with.

She said it is based on the recognition that “as adults, we are engaged in continuous learning throughout our lives and that learning from informal environments such as work and life can be used for credit towards college programmes.”

CEO of the St. Kitts-Nevis TVET Secretariat, Courtney Thompson, has been attending the workshop. He said although the national qualification is for St. Kitts, it is a precursor to the Caribbean Vocational Qualification which would allow for free movement throughout the Caribbean.

In setting a timeframe for the use of PLAR, Thompson said it is going to start almost instantaneously.

He further stated that with the launch of the Agri-business programme at CFBC, there will be a lot more programmes rolled out over the next 12 months.

The weeklong PLAR workshop is underway to familiarize the college’s management and staff of the initiative.

It is being funded by the government of Canada, as part of the CARICOM Education For Employment Programme.