CARIBBEAN-Caribbean countries urged not to treat micro-credentials differently from mainstream education.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training, Professor Prakash Persad, urged Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Monday not to treat micro-credentials as something separate and distinct from traditional education systems.

Addressing the Commonwealth of Learning CARICOM Micro-Credentials Sub-Framework Development and Planning for Caribbean Registry Roadmap opening ceremony here, Prakash said he believes that the education system should include micro-credentials.

“So it started at university level. I think it should continue at the primary and secondary levels, because there’s no point in implementing these changes at the university level if students face culture shock, education shock, whatever, there.

“So it must be a continuum. So that is something that we need to do,” he said, noting that when he was at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in the 1990s, he did a one-week training course through the Caribbean from the Dominican Republic to Suriname.

He said the training was on programmable logic controllers to update the industry on this technology, and that the course consisted of theory, tutorials, and an industry-based practical test.

“Now the participants received not a certificate of participation, but rather a certificate of competence, which was very novel then. And… we have to ask ourselves today: when we spend time and money, training must be relevant to industry and serve to enhance participants’ careers through validated certification.

“This is something that I think we need to look at seriously,” Prakash said, noting that while he could only speak for Trinidad and Tobago, both the UWI and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) undertake regular consultation with industry, noting that the days of people at universities knowing everything are long gone.

“The walls between universities and industry gradually disappeared, and ought to disappear a bit more. And we need more industry-related things. So micro-credential would address this sort of issue.”

He said another important point is on online training, which has become “much hyped,” noting “there are serious limitations with online training.

“Now, online trading at higher levels, if you have a degree already, a bachelor’s degree, you’re doing your master’s, or you’re learning already in your field, then online trading is useful, maybe necessary.

“Now, at lower levels, in terms of a certificate coming up, I think we have to look at online trading seriously. We should not, you know, think it’s the answer to everything. Face-to-face training is still essential, especially for some of these short courses.”

Persad told the delegates that this is something they have to bear in mind, adding, “You know, we hear things like, you know, we hear AI (Artificial Intelligence). Everybody talks about AI. We have to look at this seriously.

“In the Caribbean, it’s a bit difficult, and our situation is a bit different from what’s happening elsewhere. So, in fact, just a few days ago, I said to students at some skill training institute that skills training is becoming more and more important.”

He said he told the students not to look down on skills training.

“And that’s a cultural thing we need to look at in the Caribbean, that hierarchy is still very important. All jobs are important. All jobs are important, and therefore, we should have that cultural change.

“So, part of making micro-credential important and acceptable, and especially about skills training, we need to know and put this education out there that it is important, just as important, and to back that up…

“We spend tens of billions of dollars in AI data centres. You know what the problem they’re facing is? They don’t have mechanics, paediatricians, carpenters, and so on. So, this is something we need. So, as I said, cultural change is important. Having all the nice regulations and rules, et cetera, without society changing and accepting them, it won’t go very far.

Persad said that this is something the region must focus on a bit more going forward.

“So, what we’re saying and what we’d like to say to you is that Trinidad and Tobago, and I’m sure the Caribbean also, we’re looking at how we use it effectively,” he said, noting that he has read the two documents that will form the basis for the discussions here.

He said he is excited that one of the documents is looking at modules regarding certification “because what we’re doing, we’re telling people, look, do this for a month, learn it, we test you in it, we certify you in it, and you can add it up.

“That’s how it should be. Summative assessments that we talk about, and this allows people to live and be educated. See, for too long, we have had the idea that young people have to give up their lives to go to university for three to four years, study day and night to get a degree.

“So in effect, you reduce your living. Micro-credentials allow you to live with your family; in other words, they balance education and living, life and education, and living and education.

“This is what we need. And this is something I think that we need to implement,” Persad said, noting that the line between a student studying for a degree and a worker seeking certification is becoming blurred.

“And therefore, again, I want to emphasise the point of education. To change the mindset is important. So part, I don’t know if, I didn’t read it, when I read it, I didn’t see the part of educating the public.

“I would strongly suggest that you do that…and in doing that, get industry on your side. Get industry on your side, so when the demand, this is what we want, industry says that, then educators will say, well that’s what we have to do.”

But he urged delegates to be wary of academic fraud, which he said is on the rise, coinciding with the use of AI.

“So this is something that we need to do. So people can have their, as you call it, digital wallets, digital badges, whatever mechanism for implementation, that is something we need to do.”

He is urging regional countries to put such measures in place, “but not only in the context of micro-credential,” saying “it should be integrated into the education system and that the education system doesn’t start at university, it starts at the primary level.”

He said Trinidad and Tobago is examining the possibility of developing “parallel tracks in the secondary school system.

“One for the so-called academic track, one for the skills track, all moving up to university level. So that way, nobody feels that skills training is inferior to academic. Because you have to ask yourself the question, would anybody here want a doctor who’s full of theory, but no skill in surgery, to operate on you?

“So this dichotomy of education skills being, no, no, it’s one, they have to be together, must be together, and this is something we need to really emphasise, work on and put forward as we go forward in this issue,” Persad added.