The Ministry of Education in Anguilla and Toon Boom Animation Inc. have delivered a four-day workshop for some fifteen participants. The undertaking is part of a plan to broaden the scope of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) efforts on the island.
The participants included mainly teachers, with others from the Department of Information Technology & E-Government Services and the Anguilla Community College. The workshop facilitator was Stacey Ebersehlag, a trainer with Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Canadian software company that specialises in animation production software (founded in 1994 and based in Montreal, Quebec).
Mrs. Chanelle Petty-Barrett, Permanent Secretary, Education, said the Ministry was pleased to have been able to engage with Toon Boom to put the animation software in place and to conduct the training. She thanked Mr.Ebersehlag for delivering the workshop. “I really appreciate the effort you put in,” she said. “It is a lot more technical than I would have imagined but, I think, based on the enthusiasm that I gathered from the room, that persons found it a very worthwhile experience.”
Mrs Petty-Barrett was also grateful to Mrs. JanisMckeag-Richardson, TVET Coordinator at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, for her initiative in identifying animation training as something that the Ministry would want to explore further. She also thanked the participants and hoped the training would be beneficial to them as well as to the process of teaching and learning.
Chief Education Officer, Mrs. Rhonda Connor, was confident that the participants’ exposure to the training would open new and exciting possibilities for them and others. She joined in thanking Mr.Ebersechlag for facilitating the workshop.
Mrs.McKeag-Richardson said that as the TVET Coordinator she would like to see the expansion of digital animation training. “Here in Anguilla we have been at the cutting edge because CXC is going to be bringing in a new CAPE subject, Digital Media,” she stated. “I believe next year is going to be the first year of delivery and we are ahead. This is our third year that we have been offering a digital media course in forms four and five at the local level. We are already involved in digital animation, music and videos, so this [CAPE subject] is going to be terrific to that end to the children.”
