On Thursday, June 18, 2015 Mr. Lester Riviere, Ms. Lucilla Lewis and Ms. Karen James of Dominica were among eight trainers certified as Service Export Trainers in ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, thanks to the generous support of the Caribbean Export Development Agency in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Within the services sector it was recognized that there were limitations in the ability of some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adequately develop an actionable strategy to enter export markets.
Thus in order to support in this endeavour, the Caribbean Network of Services Coalitions (CNSC) made a call for the development of a training programme to address specifically Services sector issues. Services Go Global was developed to addresses this challenge; in September 2014, a Training of Trainer programme was held for Trainers from across the Region.
Some 28 Trainers were exposed to the training and last week the Antiguan, Dominican, Grenadian and Belizean Trainers were the third grouping to undergo Certification under the Initiative; Barbados was the venue for the first session held with Jamaica being the second. This week other Trainers from around the Region will undergo Certification at a similar event in St. Lucia.
The DCSI is planning to introduce the Service Go Global (SGG) programme to local SMEs across different spectrums of the service sector through a pilot program. The ultimate outcome of this training would be the development of an Export Plan by participating firms.
The Services Go Global (SGG) programme has been developed to optimize the CARIFORUM region’s export of services through the facilitation of a training programme that prepares firms to develop a market ready export plan in order to capitalize on opportunities under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), CARICOM Single Market (CSM) and other existing 3rd party Trade Agreements; and to establish a cadre of certified Trainers for the SGG platform geared to assist SME’s in the Services Sector.
“Export Readiness” is key to entering new markets and within the programme participants will cover 4 key areas: preparing businesses for export which looks at understanding trade in services, assessing export-readiness and developing an export plan; conducting market research including researching markets and sectors and gathering market intelligence; developing a marketing strategy including starting a marketing plan and developing an online strategy; and entering the market which will review market entry options, financing, getting paid and also contracting and legal aspects associated with exporting services.
The SGG Trainer Certification programme was implemented in three (3) stages. The first being the application and approval stage which was completed in early April and closely followed by stage two where trainers were required to prepare mini export plans and complete an online examination.
It is only after successfully completing those stages that approved trainers were able to participate in the final trainer delivery assessment session which was just completed in Antigua.
Congratulations, great news. What are we going to export now?
Passports!