The pool of people in the country certified as fish handlers and processors is expected to increase upon completion of a four-month training programme in Fish Handling and Processing CVQ Level 1 and two units of Level 2.
The programme by the St. Mark’s Women in Action Incorporated, an NGO grouping based in the parish of St. Mark is being coordinated by the National Training Agency (NTA) with donor funding from the Grenada Sustainable Development Trust Fund Inc. (GSDTF).
Over the next four months the ten participants enrolled in the programme from the parish will be exposed to hazard identification and risk control, hygiene procedures, cleaning work area and equipment, applying food handling and safety practices with seafood and other aquatic products, receiving fish or shellfish, cleaning fish/shellfish, packing and icing fish/shellfish, filleting fish by hand, grading fish/shellfish, crustacean shellfish meat by hand, salting or curing fish/shellfish and control the fish/shellfish smoking process.
During an orientation exercise held at the St. Mark’s Resource Center on Thursday 27 April 2023, Member of Parliament for the constituency, Hon. Clarice Modeste-Curwen emphasized the importance of the project to the parish and expressed her desire to see lasting results from the programme through the creation of sustainable livelihoods by the participants. The MP also noted that the fishing community was well placed with a local market for products to add value to production.
Speaking for the funders, Programme Officer, Abi-Gail Oliver said the GSDTF will support the programme with $10,000 USD to build capacity in the fishing industry and enable sustainable livelihoods. The Trust Fund will provide monitoring and evaluation of the training to ensure it is successfully executed and that participants emerge knowledgeable, certified, and marketable. Ms. Oliver also encouraged the candidates to remain innovative and abreast with new and emerging technologies and trends in the market to remain sustainable.
The training will be facilitated by Fisheries Officer, Lisa Chetram, while the NTA will provide coordinating services under the umbrella of Community-Based training. Making remarks at the event, Enterprise-Based Training Officer, Ricardo Nicholas, told the participants that the training would empower them by building their competency levels and skill set in Fish Handling and processing. He also told participants that their confidence levels would also increase by the end of the training because they would be trained and certified and more marketable with opportunities to increase to even higher levels of training in the skill area.
