An Education Needs Assessment of CARIFORUM Firms

Figure 5: % of businesses currently exporting

Do you currently export products/services to other countries?

44.3%

55.7%

Yes No

Figure 6: Export-related difficulties identified by businesses

What difficulties does your business currently face in exporting to other countries? (Tick all that apply)

Costs of exporting Difficulty in understanding export-related… Takes a lot of time to organise/arrange exports Limited knowledge/skills about exporting Insufficient support from government/business support… Countries that I export to carry too many barriers or… Insufficient resources/time/capacity Difficulty complying with market access requirements… Demand for my products/services in the other countries is… Other (please specify)

20.2% 19.7% 19.2%

36.5%

3.4%

38.5%

4.8%

0.0%

21.2%

56.3%

Limited knowledge/skills about exporting was not considered a major challenge for current

exporters as many of their challenges extended beyond the direct scope of education and skills

enhancement (see Figure 6). However, export-related training is later revealed as the second

highest general training need in Figure 10. Considering that most of the surveyed firms were not

currently exporters, it may be deduced that while export-related skills/knowledge is not a major

challenge among current exporters (see Figure 6), for non-exporting firms this could be a major

skills-gap hindering their participation in exporting activities. All of the listed specific export

related training areas outlined in Figure 7 were identified as needs by more than half of the

respondents, with the most selected being market p enetration/access (80.35%). The region’s

inability to penetrate foreign markets, despite formal trading arrangements that grant favourable

44