An Education Needs Assessment of CARIFORUM Firms

• Section C – this section was designed to gather info rmation on businesses’ recent training

experiences (or history) including the areas of training to which they were exposed and

how useful these training experiences were in general. The final question in this section

sought to assess respondents’ views of the presence of one or more key barriers affecting

the interest and participation of the regional business community in training and

development programmes.

• Section D – this final section allowed business respondents to identify specific preferences

with respect to the delivery modality of the needed training, duration of the training,

certification requirements at the completion of the training, particular types of skills in need

for the business in the near future, and any recommendations or suggestions to enhance the

design and delivery of training to businesses in general. The final segment of questions in

Section D allowed respondents to provide specific contact information (e.g., name, phone

numbers and email addresses) to facilitate further contact with the chief coordinators of the

survey assignment.

The final version of the survey tool was translated into English, Spanish and French languages and

dispensed to the relevant country-level BSOs in those relevant countries. For Suriname, the

English version of the survey was used instead of the Dutch (translated) version since it was

verified that the majority of the population speaks English as a dominant second language. The

lack of translation for Suriname did not seem to affect response rates since Suriname registered

some of the highest response rates. Using SurveyMonkey, a single web-based or electronic link to

the survey was developed and shared with each country in the study. A copy of the final survey

instrument can be found in Annex 4.

2.1.3 Pre-test, Training and Data-Collection Procedures

During the last week of August 2022, a pretest exercise of the initial online survey tool was

conducted with a sample of BSOs and their affiliate business members/partners (n = 6 participants)

to review and complete in two of the fifteen countries selected for the survey exercise. This pretest

exercise sought to obtain any necessary feedback for improving the structure, presentation and

content of the questionnaire items. This pretest permitted several revisions to be made in order

improve the survey questions, allowing them better clarity and structure throughout the instrument.

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