Gregory Wint. - Contributed

Ever since he was named the inaugural values icon of the HEART Trust/National Training Agency in April 2006, it has been almost non-stop action for Gregory Wint.

Mr. Wint won the award from a field of 21 nominees and received several prizes including a laptop computer, a $300,000 training scholarship, and a trip to attend the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Conference in Washington, D.C.

At the time, he was acting head of the electrical and theory department at the HEART Trust Jamaican-German Automotive School (JAGAS) in Kingston, but he has since been promoted to project manager for World Skills Jamaica. The National Training Agency holds its skills Jamaica competition every two years and is a member of the World Skills organisation which also stages an international biennial event.

Core values

The Values Icon Award was introduced by the Human Resources Planning and Development (HRPD) department of the trust to ensure that employees lived the core values of the organisation which are customer satisfaction, quality, learning, creativity and innovation, relevance, partnership, and teamwork.

Mr. Wint joined HEART in 1999 as a related subjects instructor at JAGAS and he is currently in his final year of the Bachelor of Science in human resources management (SHRM) degree at the University College of the Caribbean. He has also been a finalist in the annual Instructors Quality Services Awards hosted by the HEART Trust/NTA.

"The experience at the SHRM Conference in Washington was very rich in terms of my professional development. I got an opportunity to network with over 13,000 professionals from all over the world. The speakers and the plenary sessions were first class. I got an opportunity to listen to a presentation by former American Secretary of State, Colin Powell. His presentation focused on effective leadership and its importance to optimising productivity. His witty approach kept the audience in stitches," noted Wint.

Since his return from Washington, Wint has been on the road reinforcing the HEART values to his colleagues across the country. Already, he has made presentations entitled 'Living the Core Values' to HEART staff at several training institutions in Kingston and St. Andrew.

"The objective of these presentations is not only to increase the awareness of staff members of the core values, but also to strengthen their acceptance of these critical values and to clearly illustrate the relationship between the core values and realisation of the organisation's vision. Eventually, I will make the presentation at all the HEART institutions across the island."

New Values Icon Award competition

Mr. Wint is also excited about plans to introduce a new Values Icon Award competition for HEART trainees, comparable to the current one done for the staff of the organisation. He has already identified several persons to sit on a committee to establish the criteria for selecting the most suitable learner to be given this award.

And, there's more from HEART's Values Icon. Starting this academic year, Mr. Wint will be targeting 10 high schools in a pilot project where he will speak on the importance of identifying and preserving core values.