Justice Training Institute seeking tertiary level status
March 07, 2006
BY September this year, several new posts will be created for court reporters in Resident Magistrate Courts islandwide to allow for a smoother flowing of proceedings and a decline in the backlog of cases.
With the expected increase in court reporters, the Justice Training Institute (JTI) is currently seeking to become registered as a tertiary level institution by the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ), to be followed by an international accreditation of its court-reporting programme by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) in the United States.
Director of training and academic affairs at the JTI, Edward Shakes, told JIS News that a team from the UCJ visited last month and examined the premises.
Shakes was confident that the JTI will be granted tertiary level status, and that the institution would be making an application for three of their main programmes to be accredited.
The three programmes, he said, will be the certificate programme for court reporters, which has a two-year duration; a year-long certificate in legal administration; and a certificate in criminal justice studies.
Shakes said the certificate in court reporting now being offered is tied with the same standards of what is offered in the United States as an associate degree. "In fact, the two-year programme does meet the requirement of an associate degree or a diploma, and we expect that it is coming out at over 60 credits, so we will be considering that in the future.
Author: JIS
Source: Jamaica Observer
