Bridgetown, Barbados – The Embassy of the United States of America to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean on Thursday announced a new US$1.35m (BD$2.7m) entrepreneurship initiative with the University of the West Indies-Cave Hill and Indiana University.
The multi-year Job Opportunity for Business Start-up (JOBS) initiative is aimed at supporting the growth of an entrepreneurial culture and diversifying the service oriented economies of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. JOBS will be coordinated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Barbados and Eastern Caribbean and Higher Education for Development (HED).
JOBS will strengthen the University of the West Indies-Cave Hill School of Business’s Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship as the hub for innovative business training and growth in the Eastern Caribbean.
Indiana University Bloomington has been selected to partner with the Cave Hill School of Business under JOBS to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset in the region through updated degree and certificate programs focused on alternative energy initiatives, high-tech ventures, social entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship in cultural industries.
USAID’s Representative in Barbados James Goggin, expressed his delight for the program: “A keystone of USAID’s cooperation program for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean is to advance economic development through entrepreneurship. We are excited and honored to be forming this new partnership with the University of the West Indies and its Cave Hill School of Business and Indiana University which will combine the energies of our three institutions to address the challenge of creating new business opportunities in Barbados and its neighboring countries, especially for Caribbean young people.”
The JOBS initiative stems from a worldwide USAID effort to promote post-secondary skills training. Many technical and vocational community colleges and higher education institutions in the United States have business schools and centers that are actively linked to industry and corporations. The support of academic and business communities in Barbados will facilitate a strong foundation for graduates having an entrepreneurial spirit, regardless of their area of study.
“So often, we hear about youth building our future. The JOBS initiative is an investment in that idea. Education coupled with practical internships and mentoring from the business community can nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of students and young working professionals,” said HED Executive Director Tully Cornick.
This award of US$1,350,000 is funded by the U.S. Government through USAID/Barbados and Eastern Caribbean, and managed by HED.
For further information contact:
Amanda Lynch-Foster
Public Affairs Specialist
Tel: 246-227-4206
Fax: 246-429-5316
Rebecca Ross
Public Affairs Officer
Tel: 246-227-4100
Just look at the USAID COTS programme ! I rest my case! All it served to do it to have Bajans blining with blackberries then you hear de programme was cut !
As much as I cannot stand him, I agree with Mouth of the South on this. I am not even wasting my time get excited. The bajans are the only ones to enjoy this!
Cheer up MOS, our budding entrepeneurs , island-wide have already benefited through the initiative of WEL and the first in-house seminar held last Nov. at Jungle Bay. This new initiative will help to provide continuity of these local efforts. And to be realistic, Barbados is already the home of the U.S. Embassy for our region and has superior communications, particular with regard to international air traffic. Instead of being envious we would do well to emulate- and establish a healthy competition with them.
I disagree with you on that. I know of many other projects that donor agency bases offices are in Barbados and they have siphon most of the funds to Barbados and invited the other countries to stupid insignificant training programmes. So they put up in a hotel, give you cheap food and have you seat in a seminar for days listening to bajans rhetoric. Then they report 65 Eastern Caribbean national benefited from the programme. I do not think it is an issue of envy. I think it is an issue of equality in distribution of the benefits.
ADMIN how does one apply for these funds?
Admin: contact information added. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the story.
Well done USA, we need that in the region. Great venture and we really need that type of interjection in the region
to be honest i only see b/dos benefitting,,, i’d like someone to educate me as to how barbados became the base of the u.s department of homeland security,,, i mean what were they offered in barbados which st lucia or dominica couldn’t have offered,,, at one point weren’t there other u.s embassy offices in place in the o.e.c.s other than b/dos??????