CVQ in Guyana means ‘dual qualifications’ for students – ACEO

The Caribbean Examinations Council has granted conditional approval for the implementation of the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) in secondary schools across Guyana.
During this week’s Education Spotlight, Assistant Chief Education Officer – Technical, Marcia Paddy outlined that this competency-based certification allows students to achieve skills that are set to a specific standard based on the occupational area of study.
This will prove advantageous for students and means greater opportunities.
“It means that students leaving school will now have dual qualifications. If a child would have achieved CVQ, the child can further his education at any post-secondary institution in Guyana or if they move across the Caribbean, they can seek employment and further their studies,” the education official pointed out.
According to the ACEO, Level One CVQ is being offered at the secondary level, with Levels Two and Three accessible at post-secondary institutions. CVQ will be implemented in all schools across Guyana.

“Students are not required to write an exam. They are expected to achieve certain skills as they progress. In the implementation, what is needed is evidence of the student’s work that will be audited at the end of the programme,” she expounded.
Preparation on the Education Ministry’s end would have entailed selecting schools and preparing them for an audit spearheaded by the Caribbean Examinations Council to determine their readiness.
“Following the pilot of CVQ in Guyana with eight schools, we would have made a decision to do an expansion. We would have initially identified 34 schools to be added to the programme. However, we dropped one school due to some technical difficulties. As part of the process, CXC conducts a pre-readiness audit in order to determine whether these schools are ready for the programme or not,” Paddy explained.
She added that conditional approval was granted since the country was five marks short in the audit. These are being corrected internally. In January, a full report on the individual schools will be sent by CXC.
“They would have granted us conditional approval, which means that we fall short of five marks of being qualified but there are some things that we can fix which are based on occupational safety and health. These are some issues that we have been addressing following that audit.”
In 2021, when the CVQ certification was originally introduced in eight secondary schools in Guyana, approximately 119 students registered in four areas: commercial food preparation, furniture making, fabric decoration, and crop production.
The Ministry then expanded it to 34 more schools with the aim to eventually have CVQ programmes offered in every secondary school across Guyana. This will enable each child to exit secondary school with both a CXC certificate and a CVQ certificate.