The University of the West Indies (UWI) is currently negotiating an agreement with the Government of Guyana to help to train up to 20,000 Guyanese over the next five years, through The UWI Open Campus.
This was disclosed on Wednesday by UWI which said that it was invited by the President of Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali, to help drive forward Guyana’s human resource development strategy.
Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, held a virtual meeting with Dr. Ali on November 5, 2020 in which they discussed a strategy for the country’s future described as “exciting, sustainable, and on the cutting edge of Caribbean governance.”
“This represents an opportunity not only to help build a fellow CARICOM nation’s capital infrastructure for economic, social and cultural development, but also to bring the University’s internationally recognised brand of excellence into the country”, UWI said.
The release said that President Ali has called upon The UWI to be “very aggressive” in producing the business plan that will allow it to deliver. He has identified all areas of human resource development that Guyana is urgently in need of. In response, the release said that Vice-Chancellor Beckles has assured the President that The UWI sees Guyana as part of its environment.
The release said that Vice-Chancellor Beckles is excited by this “grand invitation” to enter Guyana to assist with its rebuilding process.
He says, “This is as exciting as anything we have done in any region in the world, because we are on the margin of one of the largest societies, one of the biggest economies and, arguably, one of the most dynamic going forward.”
A meeting is being planned between The UWI and relevant ministers of the Government of Guyana shortly. Vice-Chancellor Beckles is confident that the Council of The UWI will endorse this project. The release said that he has already spoken with The UWI’s Chancellor, Robert Bermudez, who agrees that it must and should be undertaken.
The UWI release further said that the collaboration between the university and Guyana is particularly exciting in the context of the institution’s Triple A Strategy, which focuses on revitalising Caribbean development through the application of three areas of focus: Access, Alignment and Agility.
Vice-Chancellor Beckles added that the Caribbean is at “a moment of convergence”, a point in its collective history in which intra-regional collaboration and mutual support will be the key to successful nation-building.
