Managing Director Dr. Taneisha Ingleton joins regional experts to discuss AI, automation, and the training pathways preparing Jamaica for a digital future.
Managing Director Dr. Taneisha Ingleton, speaking Monday at the IDB/PSOJ EMPOWER JA Forum at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, highlighted the approach of the Trust to expanding the pathways available to potential applicants.
“When we invite applicants from different backgrounds, skillset and levels of experience, we do not lower the standard to train them. Instead, we create more routes to achieving the standard“.
She pointed to two pathways doing exactly that — Prior Learning and Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) and Work-based Learning — both designed to meet trainees where they are instead of asking them to fit a single mould.
The conversation also brought partnership into focus. Dr. Ingleton highlighted the growing circle of private-sector bodies working with the HEART/NSTA Trust to co-design training solutions, including: the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (JMEA), the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica (IMAJ), the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), and the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) — with an open invitation for more organisations to join.
Dr. Ingleton joined a panel of regional workforce and industry experts for the closing segment of the sixth and final series of the IDB/PSOJ EMPOWER JA Forum. Held under the theme “Future-Ready Talent: Building Jamaica’s Workforce for the Digital Logistics Economy,” the session brought together voices from academia, private industry, and international development to tackle a question shaping Jamaica’s economic future: how do we prepare our workforce for a logistics sector being reshaped by artificial intelligence and automation?
That spirit of collaboration was echoed by one of her co-panellists, Dr. Pablo Ibarraran, Division Chief for Social Protection and Labour Markets at the Inter-American Development Bank: “We are very excited about this partnership with the apprenticeship programme with HEART. This will help us to develop the relevant skills that are needed by the business sector to continue growing Jamaica’s economy.”
As the sixth and final series of the EMPOWER JA Forum closed, the discussions across the series leave behind a clear mandate: sharper trade competitiveness, faster digital transformation, and a talent pipeline resilient enough to carry Jamaica’s economy forward. This is a mandate the Trust is already building toward — one apprentice, one pathway, one partnership at a time.