98 graduate from Noranda community skills centres
NINETY-EIGHT students graduated with technical skills from training centres run by Noranda Bauxite in St Ann late last month under a programme organised by the bauxite company, the HEART Trust/NTA, and Brown’s Town Community College.
The students were trained and certified by HEART/NTA between 2010 and 2015 up to Level II in Motor Vehicle Engine Systems and Welding and Fabrication.
Noranda’s Engineering Manager Craig Thompson pointed out that the graduates have now joined the ranks of qualified Jamaicans who have earned certification that is recognised all over the world.
He said that the Noranda Discovery Bay and Noranda Water Valley community skills centres represent “an investment of confidence by Noranda in the community and in the future of Jamaica”.
“The training has produced a cadre of skilled workers that the company can look to whenever the need arises for strengthening our workforce,” a Noranda news release quoted Thompson.
The graduation was the first of its kind out of the Noranda/HEART programme, which first started in 2010 with the building of a centre at the bauxite mining complex for training in heavy duty maintenance sponsored by the company.
The second Noranda centre was opened in 2012 in Discovery Bay by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
In his address to the 2015 graduation, Denworth Finnikin, senior director of the Workforce Development and Employment Division at HEART, commended Noranda for seeing the need for training Jamaicans to gain the necessary skill sets demanded by the labour market.
He also commended the students for their application and ambition, noting that some had already invested in their communities by establishing businesses or finding employment with Noranda and other organisations.
The vote of thanks on behalf of the graduates was given by Andrew Jackson, who spoke of the joy the graduates felt for the successes they achieved through the partnership of Noranda, HEART and Brown’s Town Community College.
“You will always be celebrities to those whose lives you have touched. You have taken the giant step of putting 98 skilled technicians into the labour market, and I exhort you to continue to never lose confidence in the ability of the trainees to perform, as the entire world is now our horizon,” Jackson said.
Noranda’s Public Relations Superintendent Kent Skyers assured the audience that the programme will be maintained with the centres kept fully equipped and tuition sponsored by Noranda.