The Caribbean region is currently preparing for the merging of markets and economies through the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). This merger has definite implications for the Caribbean’s labour force, relative to the demand for skills that will result from the aftermath of the CSME. In response to this, Caribbean leaders have instituted a section on human resource development in their National Strategic Plan to achieve developed-country status within the next few years.

The buzz word in education today is “STEM”, especially in TVET circles where it appears to be critical in the development of technical minds. It has been argued that “STEM Education atempts to transform the typical teacher-centred classroom by encouraging a curriculum that is driven by problem-solving, discovery, exploratory learning, and requires students to actively engage a situation in order to find its solution” (Fioriello, 2011).

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.