A major advancement for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Guyana has been marked as 96 educators across the country have completed industry-aligned competency training and earned recognized Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) credentials, the Ministry of Education has announced. This milestone comes as part of ongoing work by the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to upgrade the national TVET sector through its standardized CVQ initiative, which has been built out over the past three years to align local training with regional occupational standards.
Speaking at the announcement of the completed certifications, Education Minister Sonia Parag pushed back against long-held stereotypes that frame TVET as a lower-tier alternative to traditional academic schooling, highlighting its central role in preparing Guyana’s workforce for fast-emerging economic opportunities. “Technical and vocational education is not a lesser pathway. It is essential to preparing our people for the opportunities ahead and building a skilled workforce that can contribute to Guyana’s continued development,” Parag stated. She urged the newly certified teachers to leverage their updated practical skills to empower students, elevate instruction at their home institutions, and challenge outdated misconceptions about career and technical education.
Dr. Ritesh Tularam, Deputy Chief Education Officer for Technical Education, framed the certification milestone as a celebration of educators’ commitment to continuous professional growth, lifelong learning, and instructional excellence. “The achievement of a CVQ represents a commitment to nationally and regionally recognised occupational standards. It demonstrates that an individual has acquired and can apply the practical skills, knowledge, and competencies required to perform effectively in a particular occupational area,” Dr. Tularam explained. He emphasized that ongoing professional development is critical to equipping teachers to deliver high-quality competency-based training and assessment, encouraging the certified educators to not only apply their new skills in their own classrooms but also mentor peer educators across the sector.
The CVQ programme at CPCE has a clear developmental history that led to this week’s milestone. In 2023, the college integrated the programme as a mandatory requirement for all students pursuing specializations in Agricultural Science, Industrial Technology, Home Economics, and Visual Arts. That same year, 121 TVET students across CPCE’s seven coastal learning centers were enrolled in the initiative. To meet the requirements for institutional accreditation, CPCE prioritized upskilling its own instructional staff first: in April 2023, 14 full-time and part-time lecturers from across its regional centers completed specialized training in Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET) to prepare them to deliver and assess the CVQ curriculum.
In its early stages, the programme offered seven specialized occupational areas, with students registered through partnerships with leading post-secondary technical institutions across Guyana, including the Linden Technical Institute, Essequibo Technical Institute, Guyana Technical Institute, Beterverwagting Practical Instruction Centre, Mahaicony Technical and Vocational Training Centre, and Hopetown Practical Instruction Centre. CPCE began the formal process of becoming a registered CVQ awarding institution in November 2024, and secured full official registration in June 2025. This key regulatory milestone now allows the college to directly register its own students for CVQ certification, eliminating reliance on external partner institutions and significantly strengthening its institutional capacity to manage and expand the programme across the country.
Through the steady expansion of the CVQ initiative, CPCE is working to build a more highly skilled, credentialed TVET teaching workforce, and improve the quality of practical, competency-based education delivered to students across Guyana. Education officials note that this investment will support the country’s broader economic development goals by ensuring the workforce has the specialized practical skills needed to fill growing demand in technical and vocational sectors.