The adoption of an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) by the Government of Guyana, has served to highlight that there is a severe shortage of Technical and Vocational skills in the county. In an attempt to reduce the shortage experienced, the agency concerned with the Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP) of Guyana, made available the funds for the provision of, materials, tools, equipment as well as the human resources needed for conducting the three (3) phases of a training programme in the Technical Vocational area.

Divergent discourses in education affecting social investment policies are driven by disparate perceptions of education as value, whether societal, individual, or by restructuring definitions of human capital beyond truncated utility measurements. In that context, powerful policy actors are making decisions based on their class cohort experience of what education should be, resulting in distinguishing evaluative properties that design education policy typologies to fit.

This paper discusses a small scale research study concerned with answering the research question: “What perceptions are held by students regarding networked learning and social media interactions?” This question was part of a wider research focal question: How do digital technologies and digital learning resources mediate Communities of Practice to support participation and learning?

The genesis of this study began with the understanding that there are many Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) public, government, and private schools and institutes in Jamaica at the secondary and tertiary education levels. At the time of this research, there was no specifically designed TVET principal/director preparation program or specialized qualifying credential.

The inclusion of papers from the Third International Conference on TVET in the Caribbean which was held during May 10-12, 2017 and embraced the theme “TVET for Sustainable Regional Development” is a testimony to the commitment of the University of the West Indies to the development of TVET at the tertiary level. In this issue of the Caribbean Journal of Education, four papers successfully met the targets established by the Journal for publication.

Any programme of sustainable development must include and should emphasize certification in technical, vocational education and training, and also create and support entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth. This research seeks to explore the perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and aspirations of twenty HEART Trust NTA Spa Therapy students while pursuing TVET certification at the HEART College of Beauty Services (HCBS) over 44 weekends.