St. George’s, March 18, 2011 (GIS) – A Grenada government minister is supportive of local and regional efforts at expanding the education of young people to include more technical and vocational subjects. She told regional delegates, as well as representatives of Grenada’s National Training Agency (NTA), that the importance of training cannot be overemphasized. Our development as individual countries and the region, as a whole, is significantly dependent on the skills and abilities of our people,’’ Minister Roberts said. The mandate of the NTA includes vocational training, as well as certification of those of those involved in technical and skills’ trades. “We welcome the shift in the education paradigm which, over the years, focused heavily on academics and ignored vocational training,’’ the Labour Minister said.