As of Monday, September 9th a total number of 82 students have started the preparation courses at the brand new National Institute of Professional Advancement.
These prep courses can be considered as the transition phase of integrating the former Youth Development Program and SBO courses with a variety of soon to be offered advanced vocational education courses by NIPA. Until December 2013 all courses and programs are still funded by USONA as part of the Project SBO under the Ministry of Education and Division of Educational Innovation.
In the 4-month prep program students are introduced to classes and workshops related to Social Skills, Career Preparation, Hospitality, English, Practical Training, Physical Education and Information Technology.
The four groups comprise of students interested in Hospitality, Caregiver one, Maritime, Construction, Carpentry, ICT and Car Mechanics courses.
Next to the preparation program, the courses Bookkeeping, Secretary and Licensed Practical Nurse, which were originally held by St. Maarten Academy and Milton Peters College, have continued at NIPA. Next week the Caregiver’s Course SPW level 1 under auspices of SIFMA, will also start.
Recently 377 persons registered and many others walk in every day to find out what the Institute can offer for them. Unfortunately the Institute cannot start all courses immediately and will gradually introduce a full program.
Persons who registered, but did not receive a telephone call from the Coordinators, will be informed at a later stage when final decisions are made on courses in the different career fields at the different levels. These programs are scheduled to start in January 2014.