An Education Needs Assessment of CARIFORUM Firms

• To remain competitive in an increasingly digital world, Caribbean Export should focus

capacity building efforts on bolstering the ability of firms to leverage e-commerce as

a low-cost export option , with due consideration for addressing systemic challenges with

facilitating cross-border payments and enforcing cybersecurity. Where possible, a

digital/online presence or e-commerce component should be attached to all relevant

courses to ensure that business models remain resilient and competitive amidst global

trends.

• Given that most of the respondents to the survey have indicated their desire for training,

Caribbean Export has an opportunity to demonstrate its clear value to the region in this

field. It could consider expanding and modifying current training provided under

some of its flagship programmes (for instance under ProNet) but given the clear preference

to certification by participants, Caribbean Export might be better advised to ( i) combine

its training offering with other entities in the region engaged in training and (ii)

collaborate with certifying institutions to design courses that are tailor made to the

specific needs identified in this Report . For example, Caribbean Export could approach

more business oriented educational platforms like Coursera to assess their willingness to

develop some of these courses. In addition, regional institutions like the University of the

West Indies through the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and

Services and the Centre for Professional Development and Lifelong Learning currently

offer several certified short courses for the private sector.

• All designed programmes should take into consideration the private sector’s preference

for short (no longer than 2 weeks), face-to-face (where possible), cost-effective ,

practical-oriented programme offerings, with necessary multi-lingual features if

offered to non-English speaking firms.

• Although beyond the scope of this Consultancy, Caribbean Export might wish to specify

the needs of firms based on characteristics (such as gender and age) and on a country

specific basis . The data collected in this Project would allow for further refinement of

training needs on a country basis for those countries that met our survey targets (see

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