This May, the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) in Portland will host 17 students from the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) Technical Institute in Trinidad and Tobago.
The short term visit is part of a study abroad agreement signed on April 23, under an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), during the NESC Technical Institute’s inaugural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Conference.
“Through this initiative, students from our Renewable Energy Technology Services programme will [shortly] depart… for a study abroad experience at CASE, where they will be exposed to emerging practices such as agrivoltaics, combining renewable energy and agriculture in innovative ways,” said the Institute’s Acting Vice President of Corporate Services, Kristle Gangadeen.
CASE President, Dr. Derrick Deslandes, told JIS News that dialogue between the institutions was first initiated during the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) World Congress in September 2024.
“We saw where we could complement each other. They are big on training in technical areas, not dissimilar from what HEART[/NSTA Trust] does, and they had a need for upskilling their staff in terms of education and certification,” he said.
In March 2025, CASE and the NESC Institute signed an MOU to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, while deepening their relationship as sister institutions within the Caribbean.
Dr. Deslandes noted that CASE is the first institution in the Caribbean to develop an agrivoltaic system.
“Part of what was signed [on April 23] is to develop a capacity-building programme with a real agrivoltaic system,” the President said.
He further indicated that CASE received sponsorship from East West Power Korea and the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Foundation to establish the institution’s first agrivoltaic farm.
Agrivoltaic farms maximise land efficiency by producing crops and solar energy simultaneously.
Dr. Deslandes advised that a second agrivoltaic farm is currently being developed at CASE in collaboration with the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
“We are actually at the forefront of some of the modern technologies in agriculture which we think will shape how [the sector] develops in the future. It fits within our own mandate as an agricultural entity that seeks to identify new technologies and introduce them to the Jamaican population, with a view to transforming Jamaican farmers to become more productive,” he said.
Dr. Deslandes told JIS News that CASE maintains partnerships with the University of the Virgin Islands and the Biotechnology Institute in Cuba.
He explained that these synergies are anchored in the tissue culture laboratory facilities, which were recently established at CASE.
“It is part of what we regard as our mandate… not just to improve and build the capacity of Jamaican students but also to engage with Caribbean students as well. CASE used to have a lot of foreign students way back in the day, but we don’t anymore. We are trying to rebuild that relationship,” Dr. Deslandes stated.
