INSIDE GRENADA FEBRUARY 13, 2008 From Allan Campbell The first phase of the Grenada Training and Employment Project (GTEP) will be officially launched on Thursday February 14, 2008 at the GBSS Auditorium in St. George’s; beginning at 4:30 p.m. The Project which will see the training of persons in various competency based skills have already attracted over 3,300 applicants in all parishes of Grenada. These programmes will be delivered in 19 centers across the country. As a lead up to the start of classes orientation sessions are being held for all parishes commencing Monday February 11, 2008 at four (4) centers in St. Andrew. On Tuesday the orientation process will be conducted in St. Patrick; St. Mark and St. John. On Wednesday for the parish of St. George, and on Friday the orientation will be for St. David and Carriacou. These orientation sessions are carded to begin at 3:30 p.m. The T.A. Marryshow Community College is the major training provider for the project. The College is responsible for reviewing and recommending tutors for the various courses and setting the time table for the classes. A series of orientation sessions have already been held for tutors in the project. The training is made up of two (2) components; the first is soft skills; where the focus is on job-readiness training, personal development, communicative competence, critical employability competencies and skills and entrepreneurship. This component is scheduled to run for five (5) weeks. The other component of the project is technical skills: which will run for sixteen weeks (16) in the first instance and will include areas such as; Microsoft computer training, interior decorating, landscaping, bartending, waiter/waitress, metal preparation, costing and estimating, bidding and contracts among others. GTEP is a Government sponsored project that is being managed by GRENCASE, with courses delivered and evaluated by the T. A. Marryshow Community College. Interim Dean of the School of Continuing Education (SCE) of the College David Fleming says it is a challenge but it is going to happen. He believes the structure of the training is very relevant to the needs of Grenada and the personal development of the participants. At the end of the training it is expected that participants will be awarded certificates that could lead to a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ).