Above: St Lucia (CJ Photo)

By Gerard Best
CJ Contributor

Saint Lucia is rolling out a series of training workshops intended to strengthen its information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

The workshops will provide orientation and accreditation to eligible institutions or individuals who are interested in conducting training for an upcoming ICT Skills Development Programme, which covers a number of areas including multimedia production, data operations, applications development, computer graphics, as well as system analysis and design.

Eligible training providers were invited to submit proposals last month.

The workshops will prepare trainers to successfully complete the proposal submission process. More than 20 prospective trainers from across the island took part in the first workshop, held at the National Information and Communications Technology Centre, Castries earlier this month. Participants said they were satisfied with the workshop and felt more confident about submitting proposals.

Once selected, trainers will then take part in another workshop next month, to prepare them for the implementation phase of the project.

The workshops are part of a wider Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP), a project run by the Ministry of Public Service, Information and Broadcasting, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Funded by the International Development Association of the World Bank and coordinated by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, the CARCIP helps governments and private sector to harmonise the development of critical telecommunications infrastructure in three participating Eastern Caribbean countries—Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The programme is open to the public, and CARCIP will provide training grants up to $1,111 USD to unemployed youth between the ages of 17 and 35 to receive training in an ICT course of their choice.