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Contact:
John Emmanuel
Monday, June 30, 2003 - Some three million US dollars is to be pumped
into addressing the critical need for training in the region, via the USAID
funded Caribbean Regional Intern/Scholarship Programme (CRISP).
The two year initiative, being administered by the Centre for Management
Development of the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill Campus in Barbados,
along with Aurora Associates International Inc and Aguirre International, will
address human resource capacity deficiencies, support the goal of meeting
international best practices in regional businesses and seek to strengthen the
survival chances of small and medium sizes enterprises.
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Doreen Boyd, CRISP Programme Co-ordinator |
CRISP Programme Co-ordinator Doreen Boyd says the training is
being done via a consortium of government, university and private sector
partners, particularly in targeted areas that will enhance the competitiveness
of the region. The programme she says seeks therefore to be responsive to public
and private sector training needs, as well as assisting educational institutions
in meeting those needs.
“We have targeted four main areas for which we are inviting people to apply for
training,” said Boyd. The areas are information technology and
telecommunications, knowledge based service industries, agri-business and
financial services. “One would notice that these are not some of the traditional
areas in which we have economic development. We usually have that in tourism and
agriculture but the goal is to help governments who are interested in
diversifying their economic based, to see if perhaps we as a region can move
into some of the niche markets that exist,” exclaimed Boyd.
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participants at one week workshop |
The programme groups countries of the Caribbean Community with
special focus initially on the OECS territories along with Barbados, who will
take up two million of the three million dollars allocated. It will in year one
target eighty persons, sixty of which will benefit from short-term programmes,
fifteen from medium term, and five from programmes of one to two years duration
and post-training support and follow-up.
The CRISP initiative was recently introduced to members of the St. Lucia Chamber
of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in the hopes of their taking advantage of
the latest training opportunity for their staff.
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