JIS: Three of the island’s training institutions will be merged to better cater to the needs of Jamaicans.

 

They are the HEART Trust/NTA, Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL), and the National Youth Service (NYS).

 

Making the disclosure during yesterday (Feb. 1) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Hon. Ruel Reid, said the merger falls in line with the Government’s Public Sector Rationalisation Programme and will result in greater synergy and efficiency.

 

“There is a lot of overlap, duplication with what the JFLL is doing and what is happening in some of the programmes in NYS and the mainstream HEART programmes. What we are doing is putting all of them under one umbrella and expand the scope,” he said.

 

He said with the merger will also allow for more resources will be allocated to other critical agencies within the Ministry.

 

“If you combine the budgets of the (NYS and JFFL) it is about $800 million. So what is happening is that HEART is absorbing that budget and the operations and this will allow for the resources to be otherwise utilised for other activities within the broader Ministry of Education operations,” he said.

 

Senator Reid said shared services will be incorporated and will result in less duplication in areas of human resource, finance and communication.

 

CAPTION: HEART Trust/NTA Leap Centre in downtown Kingston.