An Education Needs Assessment of CARIFORUM Firms

Research and Development, Yachting/Marine Sector as well as in Construction. Training products

should be developed in the areas of Trade Facilitation, Animal, Health & Food Safety, Food

Security and Maritime Security. Stakeholder meetings at the regional levels continue to be on

going with the CARICOM Secretariat and CARICOM Institutions before the end of the project.

All regional stakeholders expressed an interest in continuing to partner with Caribbean Export to

conduct regional projects. It was expressed that the development of a Knowledge Hub within

Caribbean Export would complement the ongoing market intelligence provided as well as well as

align with regional priorities. Several stakeholders expressed opportunities for Caribbean Export

to pursue to help to better foster the development of firms operating within the CARIFORUM by

initiating missions in foreign markets such as Africa and South America. Stakeholders

acknowledged that the knowledge hub is a good priority but there are gaps in the training needs of

the CARIFORUM firms that illustrate other modalities whether it be onsite training, missions,

workshops, mentoring/coaching sessions or simply introducing national firms to other firms based

in the diaspora.

Consultations with CARICOM and CARIFORUM stakeholders recommended that Caribbean

Export address the Fundamentals of Trade for regional firms by revisiting the Modes of Services

in an online certificate programme as well as launch a campaign highlighting the benefits of the

EU-CARIFORUM EPA. It was also recommended that there be a workshop on the importance of

Intellectual Property for CARIFORUM firms.

The majority of the stakeholders consulted that Caribbean Export should offer differentiated

training to meet the varying needs of the micro, small and medium enterprises within established

priority sectors such as the Blue, Green and Orange Economies or in the Renewable Energy sector.

The differentiated training should also take into account a re-conceptualisation of who or what is

an exporter, and whether the exporter is part of a cluster or a small/micro-business.

Table 12: Findings from stakeholder consultations

Stakeholder

Summary of Key Findings

1. Training should be delivered by Caribbean Export in conjunction with Strategic Partners such as the CARICOM Secretariat. 2. Required training should involve Commercial skills, Accounting skills with regular updates.

CARICOM Secretariat

(Represented by Mr. Joseph Cox, Assistant Secretary

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