Work, Learning and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges, 2009, a 500-page book divided into 36 chapters, edited by John Fein, Rupert Maclean and Man-Gon Park, constitutes an excellent source of information on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and addresses a wide range of issues that are critical to national, regional and international development.

This study describes and analyzes the development of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme in general, and the Business Education specialization in particular, offered through the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies at the University of Technology in Jamaica. The faculty, which was formerly known as the Department of Technical Education, has been responsible for the training of technical and vocational teachers in Business Education, Family and Consumer Studies, and Industrial Technology since its inception in 1971.

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is one aspect of the general education system that focuses specifically on preparing students for employment. The availability of information and communication technology (ICT) tools has significantly changed the needs of students and the demands of the workplace. In order to prepare students to function effectively in a technology-driven work environment, the TVET curricula must be revised to incorporate ICT both as a subject of instruction and as a tool for facilitating instruction.

Small booming hydrocarbon exporting countries are very often challenged to utilize their economic windfall to transform their economies and improve the living conditions for their citizens. Both the transformation of the economy and the improvement of living conditions require the timely and cost effective construction of medium to large scale infrastructure and commercial projects. Such projects bring into focus the construction sector of these countries.

This study sought to find out the attitudes of students in two high schools towards technical and vocational education (TVE) placement and the implications for their career choices. The main study sample comprised 178 grade 11 students in five vocational options from a rural and from an urban upgraded high school in Jamaica. Upgraded high schools are vocationally oriented with the objective of preparing students for the world of work and ensuring a greater awareness of job and career fields.

Different contextual situations make it necessary for teachers to be innovative in the delivery process in order to achieve their objectives. These contexts may include the absence of resources in the classrooms; students with different learning styles; oversized classes; administrative demands on the teacher that are beyond his or her core functions; new technologies and the challenge of learning to use them to enhance learning in the classroom.

This article explores the issue of the lecturer as a researcher in the context of a tertiary level technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institution in Jamaica. Much of what is said, however, will find easy application to TVET institutions in small developing countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean and elsewhere. The article first explores, broadly, the concept of research in education and its general application to the field of TVET. It then addresses a number of issues more specifically related to the lecturer as a researcher in a TVET institution.

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has been positioned as a major contributor to national development in the  Caribbean (Chaplin, 2006;  McIntosh, 2008; Miller, 1998; O’Lawrence, 2008). The discourse about TVET has been laudatory in the main, acclaiming the potential benefits of vocational education in particular and underscoring it as a transformational tool in the educational firmament, particularly with respect to practical training pursued in light of the imperatives of nation building.

The paper begins with an analysis of the impact of vocational education in Jamaica over the past 30 years. A critical look was taken of the two periods of major interventions in Jamaica: the introduction of the grades 10 and 11 programme in 1974 and the introduction of the HEART Trust in 1982. The article advances the view that vocational education in Jamaica has failed to have the required impact in preparing a workforce to respond adequately to issues of employment, productivity and efficiency.

Policies to guide development and implementation of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) are critical if maximum benefits are to be derived from this type of education. According to Morris (1998), Jamaica has viewed TVET as an important aspect of education and suggested that no nation can succeed in its national development without a well established TVET system. TVET encourages individuals, businesses, especially small, medium and macro enterprises (SMMEs), local community groups, women and marginalized or disenfranchised people or groups to perform better.