President (Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute)

The government is working to build a stronger and more modern and prosperous future. The future of The Bahamas, however, starts today, with the education of the country’s youth. How would you describe The Bahamas’vocational educational system today?

When it comes to technical and career education - as we like to call it now instead of vocational - I think there is still a lot to be done in terms of addressing the mindset of the powers that be that technical education is the way forward and the means for growing the country.

According to the Education Ministry, technical and career education can be regarded as the single most powerful means of improving the quality of life in developing countries, as it is considered a powerful weapon against poverty and intolerance. From your perspective, just how important is technical and career education to the future growth and development of The Bahamas?

I think it is the most important aspect of growing the country and addressing the human capital because it gives students a means of providing for their families. The challenge for technical and career education is not the Ministry of Education, it would be for industry and the world of work to realize that it needs to not only be supported, but funded. We work to build as many partnerships from our end as possible and to educate the public at large. A lot of companies don’t even know that we exist; they know we are here, but they don’t know what we are about. When people come to tour the facilities they are in awe because if they are academicians, they have no concept of the technical and career world, other than they might need a technician to do something for them. I think that a lot of people are indoctrinated towards academics. I think that they see the white collar jobs and think that jobs in the technical field are for people that are not academic, not realising that you need academics in order to have a technical career. It is a worldwide stigma that those persons who are not highly academic should go into a trade. Countries that don’t have that stigma attached are those that have done very well, for example, Finland which built its economy after the war, based on technical and career education, as well as Singapore. There’s no difference in those countries between a technical career and academics.

With origins that date back to 1949, BTVI today offers full time and part-time diploma and certificate programs, and serves up to 1700 students at two campuses in the country. You joined BTVI in 2005 as Manager/Consultant to spearhead its restructuring. What exactly did this restructuring entail and how has it strengthened BTVI’s offering?

This was the result of an Inter American Development Bank loan that the government of The Bahamas received. The first phase was to review the programs that existed with the view of upgrading them because they were at a certain level that didn’t garner respect, to decide which programs were feasible and which were not, and to try to strengthen the administration of the institution. The second phase was to create a platform for credit programs, instead of just certificates; to move to Associates of Applied Science degrees. We were able to accomplish phase one and two. We did it in consultation with Daytona State College and the Academy for Education Development, Washington.

BTVI is the primary institution in The Bahamas that provides career and technical education and training for the Bahamian workforce. What would you say are the institution’s biggest strengths today?

The biggest strength now is that we train to international standards. In a lot of our programs our students are required to take international examinations as part of their qualification. Another strength we have is that we cater to a large population that cannot afford traditional college fees.

How much competition in the region?

Regionally, there is not much competition as we do not attract regional students. When reviewing and revising our curriculum, we took into consideration the Caribbean Vocational Standards; however, because of the topography of The Bahamas, we did not adopt all of the standards.

The College of The Bahamas is in the process of transitioning into a university. How do you think that this will affect BTVI?

Only from the stand point that we might have graduates who may want to matriculate to do their bachelors. Presently our graduates who do that now go to the US. There are a few that would have gone to COB but it is minimal because we don’t have an official articulation agreement with them.

BTVI delivers occupational training to a diverse student population, representing young high school graduates, non-completers, mature students and persons with varied academic backgrounds, training and interests. Where are you focusing your efforts at present in order to better prepare your students for occupational fields and the world of work?

We try to attract those school leavers to give them a career. That’s where our focus lies, but for the second largest group of students we have - mature students - they come on their own because they need to upgrade for their jobs.

To present BTVI, we go to all of the recruitment exercises that they have at the high schools.  We are present at college fairs as well and we do advertisements on tv, radio and in newspapers.

Given The Bahamas is an archipelago, there is the inherent challenge of providing education and training for a population scattered over wide areas. The BTVI currently has one campus in Nassau and one in Freeport, and also offers short programs and courses in the Family Islands. What strategies are you implementing to create more equal opportunities in education throughout the country?

The main problem is budget in getting to the Family Islands and in transporting our instructors to deliver programs in these areas. They would approach us, as opposed to us approaching them, because we can’t really afford it. As a result you would find that some of the programs that are conducted in the Family Islands are the result of local associations that sponsor the training.

What are you doing to ensure that you best incorporate technology into BTVI’s work?

Because we are a technical institution, we ensure that all of our instructors utilise technology in the classroom. We have the Vocational Education enrichment program - essentially a technical teacher’s certificate - that all our instructors are required to take. They are introduced to the technology that can be used in the classroom so that’s one way of ensuring that we stay on the cutting edge in terms of technology.

We had the chance to meet Minister Fitzgerald, who reinforced the importance of the creation of strategic PPPs. Along its history, the institute has created joint ventures with companies and other organizations, for example, Sol Petroleum, One Eleuthera and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Could you explain to the readers of HBR the importance of these partnerships?

The importance of these partnerships is to ensure that we are educating our students for the world of work. Every one of our programs has a professional advisory committee. We invite subject matter experts into the institution and we show them the curriculum. We find out what their needs are and what they expect of graduates, and they review our curriculum and get back to us. So we tweak it to ensure our students are equipped for the world of work.

In addition to that, all of our certificate programs have an internship at the end as part of the requirements that the student must complete. Where they cannot find benefactors or persons to sponsor their internship we do practicums, where they are allowed to work on projects on campus to ensure they get to reinforce the techniques that they would have learned.

You have articulation agreements in colleges in the US and Canada. What benefits do these bring BTVI?

It gives the students another aspect of the world to look at and to educate them on what is done in other destinations. A memorandum of understanding with Canadian schools is sponsored through ELAP, the Canadian government’s Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program, and our students go for one or two semesters there but they must return home. So they go and take classes there and that also extends to some of our instructors and administrators who also get to go on exchange programs.

Are you looking to establish more partnerships with international institutions?

Of course the more the merrier. They approach us more than we approach them in terms of sending students. When we were doing the IDB project, there were a lot of exchanges between our instructors and Daytona State College.

As you know, every organisation needs to have a clear set of goals, but it is the vision of its leader that enables it to reach them. As President of BTVI, and given this report will be published early next year, where do you see the institute in the next six months?

I see further strengthening of the programs we have. Another area of great importance is the strengthening of the administration and hiring the right persons for the jobs to assist the students. But our focus is student-centered, addressing the needs of the population that cannot afford traditional tertiary education.

We are also hoping within the next six months to get our solar program off the ground. Now that the government has changed itsapproach to alternative energy, we are hoping that persons will take advantage of that program.

Finally we do customised training so if a company approaches us and needs training for its staff in a certain area, we will create the program and deliver it.

Dr Dahl, on a more personal note, you boast more than 40 years of experience in the local and international tourism, administration and education fields.What is the legacy you will like to leave through BTVI?

The legacy I would like to leave through BTVI is having done the restructuring and reorganisation of the institution where we are recognised not only locally but internationally.

What is the most valuable lesson that you have learned over these years that you now incorporate into your current role?

I’ve learned that you must be flexible in terms of your beliefs and that you must be able to adapt very quickly. Having studied human behaviour in particular, I have come across so many different personalities and know how to deal with them and which buttons to touch and which not to touch. So that exposure of having dealt with a diverse group of persons is my best lesson learned.

As mentioned before, the readers of Harvard Business Review include many of the world’s most influential business and political leaders.What message would you like to send them about The Bahamas and the BTVI?

Despite our high GDP, The Bahamas still has a long way to go in terms of addressing the masses and ensuring that they are where they need to be in terms of being independent.

Regarding BTVI, we are growing and we will always try to be better at whatever we do. That’s more important to me than diversifying the curriculum and taking on added programs. People always ask what we are going to do next, but we first are going to perfect what we are doing now.