JOMA MAINTENANCE TECHNICIANS RECEIVE CERTIFICATIONS IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Four maintenance technicians of JOMA Properties Ltd., received certificates from H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s Centre for Professional Development and Community Education in English as a Second Language – Level 1 on June 30th.

Manager for the Centre for Professional Development and Community Education, Mrs. Veronique Forbes-King stated that the course’s participants Jose Faulkner, Victor Nisbett-Faulkner, Luis Altagracia, and Tony Pichardo were able to manage a condensed version of a 12-week training in just 8 weeks having attained an overall 70% pass rate.

Providing remarks at the ceremony, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Arlene Smith-Thompson said, “Here at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, we take pride in the variety of programmes that are offered at our Workforce Training Division.

We are always interested in training opportunities such as this ESL workshop, that offer specialized pathways to achieve certain targeted goals within a short-time frame.”

Dr. Smith-Thompson continued, “As we seek to expand our technical and vocational offerings, as well as avenues to offer even more industry certifications, we can certainly envision partnerships such as the one we have developed with JOMA Properties Ltd., evolving and growing, as we build the workforce capacity of these Virgin Islands.”

The overall deliverables of the specialised training course in English as a Second Language (ESL), Level 1 focuses on effectively demonstrating conversational proficiencies, exposure to basic grammar and vocabulary, and basic reading concepts.

For this particular course, emphasis was focused on the spoken form to enable participants to interact with clients in the construction and general maintenance field as well as within the organization.

The workshop ran from April 7 through May 26, 2021 and was conducted onsite at JOMA Properties and facilitated by Spanish Lecturer in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communications Department, Mr. Ronald Massicott.

Chief Operations Officer of JOMA Properties Ltd., Mrs. Fayola Wilson-Creque said, “As an Executive, I know that effective communication is the key to the success of any business. Simply put, if you cannot clearly say what you need, it will pose a challenge for you and conversely, if you cannot understand the instructions that are being put to you, it can result in a range of problems that may cause inadvertent errors with possible serious consequences.”

She continued, “I want to say to my team here once again that I am extremely proud of you all. These maintenance technicians are not only hard working and willing in their day-to-day duties, they exemplify what any employer would want in that they are willing to learn and never shy away from the professional development opportunities that we present them with… Keep striving and grasp every opportunity firmly with both hands and keep moving forward. You are all an inspiration and I continue to be proud of you all.”

In closing the ceremony, student respondent, Mr. Victor Nisbett-Faulkner showed his appreciation and articulated his thanks to HLSCC and JOMA Properties Ltd., in English, which was well received.