UWI and UNESCO offer training to 300 Caribbean creatives

The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Open Campus and UNESCO have launched the Phase two of their collaboration agreement to offer online cultural training to young artists and cultural professionals from the region. In a release dated May 27, The UWI said this is being done in the framework of the UNESCO Programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, funded by the European Union. In this second phase, the training focuses on expanding

the entrepreneurial skills of artists and young cultural professionals in the Caribbean.

Head of the Business Development Unit of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, Anneshia Welsh in her project overview said, “Our institution shares the mission of the UNESCO Transcultura Programme of harnessing diversity and building bridges between people and cultures from different linguistic areas”.

Some 437 applications were received and 304 individuals, engaged in cultural industries have been awarded scholarships to participate in the 11 Continuing Professional Education courses facilitated by The University of the West Indies Open Campus. These are Brand Management; Effective Business Communication; Effective Management and Leadership; Entrepreneurship & New Venture Creation; Entrepreneurship; Small Business Management; Finance for Non- Financial Managers; Financial Monitoring and Evaluation; Grant Proposal Writing; Project Management; Sales and Marketing Management; and Small Business Management.
These courses are being offered for the first time to participants who speak three different languages- English, French and Spanish. The UWI said, “This encouraging accomplishment allows for increasing levels of regional cooperation between English,French, and Spanish- speaking Caribbean nationals.

Pro Vice-Chancellor and principal of the Open Campus, Dr Francis O. Severin in his remarks indicated that The UWI and UNESCO are providing access to a quality experience for students and, in so doing, empowering and propelling them to self-fulfilment.

“We are at the same time efficiently and effectively aligned with our societies and our economies and concurrently we are demonstrating our responsiveness as well-respected regional and world organisations serving the needs of our societies through our agility,” he stated.

And, UNESCO co-ordinator of the Transcultura Programme, Alessandra Borchi said: “We hope that through this highly specialised capacity-building we will be providing not just knowledge and skills,but future opportunities for young cultural professionals in the Caribbean. We believe that this is particularly relevant considering that, as a result of the impact of COVID, the culture sector has been and is still being heavily disrupted. We trust that these courses and partnership will contribute to the future of young people in the Caribbean.”

Meanwhile, deputy director of the Open Campus Country Sites,Ryan Byer in his summary presentation of the student orientations during the first week of classes noted that, based on the feedback received from facilitators so far, there has been formal translators as well as informal translators, where participants in the respective courses who are versed in more than one language have been assisting colleagues who may not be so proficient in the other languages.

“This lends to the level of engagement, camaraderie and it speaks also to stretching beyond the boundaries of just the English-speaking Caribbean, but also fostering relations across other countries represented,” Bryer said.

Classes commenced on May 9, 2022 and will conclude on June 23, 2022, after which participants will receive Certificates of Achievement marking their successful completion of the courses.