Fri | Mar 29, 2024

450 graduate from FLOW Skills for the Future programme

Published:Sunday | May 15, 2022 | 12:07 AM

Dr Maurice McNaughton (left), director for the centre of Excellence and Innovation at the Mona School of Business & Management, and Kayon Mitchell (right), executive director of FLOW Foundation with some of the graduates of the Skills for the Future progr
Dr Maurice McNaughton (left), director for the centre of Excellence and Innovation at the Mona School of Business & Management, and Kayon Mitchell (right), executive director of FLOW Foundation with some of the graduates of the Skills for the Future programme. Included are Desrine Harripaul (second left),most helpful student; Javaughn Douglas (seated), valedictorian and overall top performer; Kareen Fredankey(third right), top facilitator; and Isha Thompson, top shine points student.

The FLOW Foundation recently graduated 450 students from its second cohort of the Skills for the Future Programme.

The recent graduation now brings the total to almost 600 Jamaicans that have successfully completed the programme, many of whom are employing the skills they have learnt in their daily lives.

Kayon Mitchell, executive director of the FLOW Foundation, commended the graduates for their commitment to improving themselves. The graduates included high school students as well as senior citizens, highlighting the wide relevance of the programme being offered.

“Digital inclusion is for everyone,” Mitchell said. “We will not return to life as we knew it before the pandemic. We are living in a digital economy, so it is critical that as many Jamaicans as possible are empowered to not only participate in this space, but to use the digital landscape to enable their progress.”

The partnership between the FLOW Foundation and the Caribbean School of Data (CSOD) came from the need for Jamaicans to develop competencies in navigating the digital space. This need was amplified at the onset of the pandemic, and according to Dr Maurice McNaughton, project lead and director of the Centre for Excellence and Innovation at MSBM, a collaborative response was needed to ensure sustainable people development.

“This programme reflects our commitment to academic education but also to training and development and capacity building in our society,” noted McNaughton. “We believe this programme of digital capacity building is especially relevant and essential to national and regional sustainable development.”

CERTIFICATES ISSUED

During the virtual graduation ceremony, standout students were recognised for their performance and electronic certificates were issued for each student. Javaughn Douglas was both the top male performer and the top performing student overall. He completed the course with an average of 99.6 per cent across all modules and end-of-course quizzes. Samantha Earle was the best-performing female student with an average of 97.8 per cent across the modules and end-of-quizzes. Both top-performing students were gifted a Samsung Tablet pre-loaded with 25GB of data.

Most Improved Male and Female students were Jameil Johnson and Beverley Wynter, respectively, while the Top Facilitator award went to Kareen Fredankey with 75 per cent of her group completing the course.

In her keynote address, Stacey Hines, CEO of Epic Transformation and immediate past president of Jamaica Technological and Digital Alliance, encouraged the graduates to adopt the ABCs to succeed in their pursuit of digital literacy competence.