JDF courses to receive international accreditation

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Ministry of Education on Monday morning signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will provide for the accreditation of courses offered at the JDF.

This means that skills attained by members of the JDF will be recognised in other Caribbean countries and in the commonwealth.

Speaking at Monday morning's signing, Chief of Defense Staff at the JDF, Major General Antony Anderson asserted that this is a significant step for the military, as the many skills that are attained by its members will now be certified.

Meanwhile Education Minister, Andrew Holness says the agreement also means that training gained by JDF personnel can be utilised even after they have left the military.     

“The army has been training for many years and indeed the society already knows that anyone who is trained by the army is well trained,”

“But the problem lies in the fact that societies and markets have developed and become very sophisticated and they want to be able to gauge and judge and draw equivalences to a trained army engineer in the army and what he is when he leaves military life and becomes a civilian, those issues have to be resolved by virtue of a qualifications framework,” Mr. Holness said.

The MOU will last for three years with an option for renewal.          

Under the agreement, the Ministry of Education will develop a framework to guide all areas related to the certification of JDF personnel from pay scale to entry level requirements. 

In exchange for the certification, JDF personnel will provide the Education Ministry with small scale construction services, commensurate with the value of services provided by the ministry.

An officer from the Ministry of Education will be deployed to the JDF to assess its training programme and recommend changes.