37 teachers from St. Maarten Institute of Technology & Hospitality (SMITH), SVOBE/Milton Peters college (MPC), the Small Business Development Foundation (SBDF), and SIFMA, on Monday took part in a special training session related to how to write Secondary Vocational Education (SBO/SVE) exams that comply with SBO standards.
The training session was organized by the SBO Service Center and facilitated by the Examination Bureau of the Netherlands Antilles (ETE), and Cito from The Netherlands.
The focus of secondary vocational education on the island is geared towards the "work-learning" track with an emphasis on practical training at the job site.
All teachers agreed that the training session was very helpful and informative. A follow-up training will be provided by the ETE in February 2009.
The ETE has been tasked by the Antillean Minister of Education with quality control of secondary vocational education.
A number of SBO/SVE courses are currently on-going after starting early September. These are Maritime Assistant level 1, Business Administration level 2, Secretarial Assistant level 2, and a Care Givers course level 1. An Electro level 2 course is slated to start in October.