The Challenges to distance education in technical and vocational Education in the Caribbean: The case of the special diploma in teacher training at the University of Technology, Jamaica

Anita Thomas-James
UTech

Geraldene Hodelin
UTech

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     Last modified: October 18, 2006
     Presentation date: 10/31/2006 2:15 PM in NT Ortanique
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Abstract
The Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies, University of Technology, Jamaica has undertaken the offering of a special diploma in technical teaching in pedagogical skills to in-service teachers in islands of the Caribbean on a pilot phase, in collaboration with the commonwealth of Learning (COL). Institutional lessons learnt from the administration and monitoring of the first two pilots were used to modify the programme for the third pilot.

Several challenges relating to participant motivation, availability and access to the technology; institutional support, facilitating and monitoring; as well as the blended mode of delivery will be discussed in this paper. Despite these challenges fifty three percent of the students successfully completed the programme and graduated from the University. These small wins are showing that in spite of the challenges, distance education mode provides a viable opportunity for offering TVET training.