RJRGLEANER invests in staff education
Published:Friday | September 13, 2019 | 12:00 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
Forty-five employees of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group have signed up to be part of a furtherance of education initiative, which is being spearheaded by the company’s Human Resource Department.
RJRGLEANER CEO Gary Allen said that the aim of the $1.5-million Learning and Development CSEC Programme is to help employees who have not yet achieved passes in mathematics and English in the Caribbean Examinations Council-administered tests to do so without having to deal with the financial burden.
Maths Unlimited has been tapped as a partner in this initiative to prepare candidates for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.
Allen said that as an organisation in a changing world, it is a wise move for the RJRGLEANER Group to invest in its employees and assist all categories of workers in upgrading their level of education.
“This is an exercise where there are people in the organisation who have had challenges with foundation mathematics and English language that we feel that we must bring everyone up the ladder with us. So we are instituting a programme here, where we introduce the teaching of mathematics and English up to the CSEC level, and then to assist our staff members to actually sit the exams and qualify at that level,” he said.
Allen said that the programme must be seen in the wider context as part of the ongoing lifelong learning process instituted by the group, which also has periodic seminars and training sessions for board members, managers, and supervisors.
“It is across the group that we want to ensure that we are fostering training, development, and improvement of skills to take on the world that we are now living in,” the CEO added as he lauded Human Resource Manager Tanya Smith and her team for initiating the programme.
“They have embraced adaptability through training and learning as one of the core values of the group that we must continue and enhance,” said Allen.
Smith explained that there are plans for further training engagements through an arrangement with the HEART Trust/NTA to train and certify employees in information technology.
“This is a strategic imperative that our employees do well in all areas of life and to engender good physical and mental health, aptitude, and wellness,” Smith said.
Operations and Circulation Manager Burchell Gibson gave the participants the assurance that all managers from the various departments were fully behind the programme.