BDF, Police, Coast Guard and Customs Officers Join University of Belize for Digital Literacy Program

The Belize Defense Force , Police Department, Belize Coast Guards and customs Officers along with the University of Belize today took a significant step toward strengthening education and digital readiness among military personnel through a one-day Digital Literacy Program. The initiative brought together over 50 soldiers and officers for training designed to enhance digital literacy skills and build awareness of the importance of digital transformation in today’s rapidly evolving world. The program forms part of a broader effort to equip members of the Force with the knowledge and competencies needed to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven environment. Lieutenant Colonel Jermaine Burns say the training marks the beginning of a renewed partnership between the Belize Defense Force and the University of Belize, one that aims to expand academic opportunities and professional development for members of the Force.

Lieutenant Colonel Jermaine Burns, Belize Defence Force: “It is a partnership that we’ve been working on for some years now, and it’s only coming to a mature stage of where we’re going to eventually culminate with the signing of an MOU so we can sustainably develop the partnership. And the training is specifically important to our soldiers because we have only just launched our in-house learning management system on Moodle that the government has invested in, and we are very much interested in our soldiers understanding how to use the system and capitalizing on the system for training and also for receiving policy documents and knowledge about the BDF on a whole in the aspect of training. And so as a training directorate it’s very important that we project this sort of platform for the future as well as we’re building towards digital transformation in our organization.”

The program also serves as a precursor to the signing of a long-term Memorandum of Understanding between the Belize Defense Force and the University of Belize, which is expected later this month. While the BDF is focused on strengthening digital capacity within its ranks The Director of Institutional Advancement Edgar Irvin says the partnership represents an important investment in education and national development.

Edgar Irvin, Director of Institutional Advancement:“We are forging a partnership with the Belize Defence Force and a big part of the University of Belize’s mandate is for national development. But the broader picture, the broader context, and why we’re here today is part of a government-led initiative in terms of digitizing the entire country. So as part of having the various platforms, the applications for services that can be accessed through the Government of Belize, this is supporting the citizens so that citizens can be a little bit more comfortable in their ability to be able to access whatever it might be, your police records, or your social security application forms, or your passports, or your vital statistics. So as these different services are rolled out we expect that our people should remain competent and be a little bit more comfortable in their ability to adapt to those various services. So what in terms of some of the takeaways we expect that because we are a little bit more sensitize, a little bit more knowledge of our ability to be able to use these services we can always pass on that knowledge to members of our family, to people in our communities, to people at our job sites, to people who might need it who might not have the ability to attend or might not attend for some reason or the other.”

Both institutions say they are committed to building a lasting relationship that will create greater educational opportunities for military personnel while supporting Belize’s ongoing digital transformation efforts. Officials expect the upcoming Memorandum of Understanding to formalize future collaboration in training, academic advancement, and capacity-building initiatives