In the not too distant future, every trades person in a technical occupation such as plumbing or masonry, is going to require National Certification by the National Training Board (NTB).

What does this mean for your future? If you happen to be interested in a vocational career, you might want to look to the NTB for support and assistance before you begin your journey in education.

Firstly, people must understand that entering a vocational field will not necessarily mean staying out of the classroom, explained NTB executive director, Michael Stowe.

“Technical, as it relates to technological careers, requires a balance of both academic and technical education,” he states. “What we consider a trade locally is disappearing.”

For example, an airline pilot needs technical training because flying an aeroplane requires a precise degree of expertise, but they also need to learn the physics of how a plane actually works.

Mr. Stowe adds that local students are getting a head start in this arena, as the public schools are developing and including vocational/technical studies in their syllabi, “to the extent that the high school graduate will actually be an advanced technical student by the time they go on to the post secondary level, and quite possibly students out of CedarBridge and Berkeley, particularly, will have acquired their first year of college level technical studies during their four year course in high school.”

Even before you get out of high school, if you know this is the avenue that you would like to take, you should be communicating with the NTB to see what options they have open to you. From their financial assistance to their apprenticeship programme, they are fully prepared to help bolster your education.

“The legislative mandate of the NTB is to develop standards of technical skill competence, and to operate the National Apprenticeship System and the National Certification System,” explains Mr. Stowe. “In addition to establishing the standard in technical skill competence, we ensure that the training is delivered to that standard and we also fund training.”

He continues: “In the apprenticeship programme, a young Bermudian has the opportunity to earn while they learn over a four-year period. They would attend classroom training on the basis of eight hours a day, one day a week for four years.

“And having completed the apprenticeship programme, they are then awarded a national certification for that particular occupation.”

The technical student who chooses school on a full time basis can also receive funding for their education, especially those taking a two-year course. They will be required to complete the course and then enter into an apprenticeship for two-years.

“In fact, they will serve a four-year apprenticeship just like the person who goes to school one day a week while working in the industry,” Mr. Stowe explains.

He says the national certification has a two-part criteria. If an occupation is considered eligible to become compulsory in which the practitioner is to be nationally certified, it has to be considered essential to the economy, and there are significant issues of safety in the application of that occupation.

“What comes to mind would be an electrician. They are considered essential to the economy and basically, matters of safety in the practice of that occupation are very considerable.”

As of yet, the only occupations on the Island that require national certification are electrical, welding and automotive, but Mr. Stowe believes that in the future, “just about every occupation should be nationally certified”.

“Believe it or not, even the guys who work on the trash truck are going to require national certification,” he says.

For those who think they can skirt the schooling and do the work anyway, anyone caught claiming to be nationally certified when they are not can expect to pay a fine of up to $10,000.

“If any young Bermudian wants to consider our assistance, we can help them,” Mr. Stowe asserts. “We at the NTB are trying to move you from the most basic of your occupation to the most advanced.”