BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has launched its new Associate Degree programme for students across the region. CXC said the Degree would be offered in nine areas including Business Studies, Computer Science, Environmental Science, General Studies, Humanities, Mathematics, Modern Languages, Technical Studies and Natural Sciences. Chairman of the Caribbean Examination Council, Professor Kenneth Hall, said that the award of the Associate Degree comes at a time when the Caribbean's education system is facing a number of challenges. He said that the new programme is a response, by the CXC, to ensure that the region's people have greater access to quality tertiary education. "In our view the introduction of the new Associate Degree qualifications aim to facilitate the graduates into the work force and further education and we see this as moving into a new arena." "We now have to consciously identify the upward mobility and a base for further training, that the Associate Degree will provide," Professor Hall said. Caribbean Examination Council Registrar, Dr. Lucy Steward, gave assurances that the programme would be well structured, adding that adequate quality control procedures would be implemented. " What we did at CXC is obtain feed back from educators across the region on the content of our CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination) syllabuses and a comparison of the depth of content and the breath of content with other programmes being offered, clustered together as Associate Degrees." "And therefore we looked at the thirty-three units that are offered and clustered these to award nine Associate Degrees," Dr. Steward said. CXC said that Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies would be two compulsory subjects for all Associate Degree programmes. Reprinted from caricom.org