The National Training Board will become full members of the Caribbean Association of Training Agencies by the end of the year and offer a Bermuda Vocational Qualification by 2008.

And the Ministry of Education hoped to provide senior school students with vocational training.

Minster of Education, Randy Horton, spoke in the House of Assembly on Friday about his visit to the Caribbean Ministers of Education, in Kingston, Jamaica.

The objective of the meeting was to improve cooperation between ministries and learn more about the educational experiences of other Islands.

He said: “I was particularly excited by the discussions about the establishment of the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQ) which seeks to offer vocational qualifications to all students at secondary level.

“While we may believe that it is only Bermuda where vocational education is topical, this is far from the case. Vocational education was a major agenda item at the meeting. Countries reported on their progress and the challenges they have encountered as they continue to work towards establishing national training agencies and implementing technical education and CVQ’s in their schools.”

He added that Bermuda’s National Training Board uses the Caribbean’s five-tier system for vocational training and is currently working towards meeting CVQ standards.

The Ministry will also examine two external assessment methods that were discussed at the conference, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA).

The PISA is conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and studies the proficiency of 15-year-olds in math, science and reading. The OECD also collects information on students’ backgrounds and family life. The IEA programme examines the reading level of nine and 10 year olds.

Mr. Horton said: “As part of our system development The Ministry of Education will be reviewing both of these programmes in detail to determine whether our school system would benefit from these assessment, collection of data and comparative analysis with other countries.”

He added that the trip “allowed us to gain a perspective which showed that the situation in Bermuda is not too dissimilar to that in other island nations, and that there is no real need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to assessment and accountablibity as we move forward.”