UCCI secures $405k grant for sustainable job training
(CNS): The University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) has received a grant of $CI405,000 (€432,000) from a European Union-funded organisation to train 50 unemployed Caymanians to take on sustainable jobs. The trainees will be selected to take part in a year-long programme at the college to learn technical skills in renewable energy, sustainable construction, ICT and tourism.
Paul Puckerin, the interim dean of UCCI’s Professional and Technical Education and Training Division, said the courses were selected based on needs expressed by the local business community.
“I think it’s significant for helping locals to reskill especially in a time like now, where people have been displaced by COVID,” Puckerin said at the launch of the event at the college Friday. “It is hoped that 90% of these people gain employment.”
Premier Wayne Panton, who is the minister for sustainability, was also at the event and offered his support to the training project.
The funding, made through the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Resilience, Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity Programme (RESEMBID), will cover the cost of training all the selected candidates as well as the tools and equipment.
Funds will also be used for a labour market assessment, curriculum development, an after-programme assessment and the graduation ceremony.
The application process begins this month and UCCI will partner with Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC) and the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce in identifying appropriate candidates.
The 50 students who are selected will be notified in April and training will begin by May and is expected to finish in April 2023, followed by a graduation ceremony in May. The course will include both classroom education and work internships.
Puckerin said UCCI has existing courses in tourism and ICT that will likely provide adequate training for those two prongs of the programme. A current module in photovoltaic technology that is part of the electro-technology certificate curriculum will be expanded to a full course for the renewable energy component, the focus of which will be building a solar-powered water heating system for the campus. Courses will also be added to create a sustainable construction curriculum.
Programme Director Fabian McKinnon said, “UCCI’s project to empower 50 Caymanians in four critical areas to give them the tools to chart new paths in the next year and beyond speaks to the heart of this programme and we were happy to support.”
Puckerin said that associate professor Deborah Beal and senior lecturer Fenslie Smith worked on the initial grant application in early spring 2020 and received approval last May. Details on the application process will be announced in the coming weeks.
For more information email Ppuckerin@Ucci.edu.ky or call (345) 526-1834.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Education, Jobs, Local News
“Paul Puckerin, the interim dean of UCCI’s Professional and Technical Education and
Training Division, said the courses were selected based on needs expressed by the local business community“
If the program courses have already been selected according to community business needs – why must money from the grant still be spent on a “labour market assessment”?
and why can’t these students graduate during the usual, annual UCCI graduation ceremony?
All that money just to hire more JA and USA folk, because how many Caymanians work there? One hand counting now…
Usually,too much money going to overhead. If 50% of the grant amount ends up being spent on actual education, I’ll be surprised.
They are already planning spending “on … a labour market assessment, curriculum development, an after-programme assessment and the graduation ceremony.”
Wait for the corporate governance issues to be sorted at UCCI before the cash is transferred across guys. This cash won’t be used for anything beneficial otherwise.
Always looking for handouts yet their administration has repeatedly failed to follow up with local experts who have offered their services for free as guest speakers, guest lecturers, career coaches, etc. – including some notable alumni.
I chased the admin recently but always got a different excuse from a different person, despite all claiming to be highly interested. I typically bill at a couple hundred dollars an hour but offered to do it free – including regarding some of the topics this grant covers.
I also know of a few people who would normally charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for their speeches who have offered to come speak to classes about careers, etc. for free and never heard back.
Surely these type of grants should vet if potential recipients have maximized their available resources (particularly free) before handing out cash.
UCCI is really an interesting place. The only university people will go and get told they need additional training in the end #worldclassindeed
You’d think that if there was a real need for these positions in sustainable roles, the potential employers would have advertised the program and funded it…and wouldn’t have needed external grants.
But without potential employer involvement, it might just be another time-wasting exercise for those 50 candidates, who will finish the program with no change in employment prospects, while ICCI and govt blow their trumpets about helping Caymanians to secure new roles, when nothing will have changed.
So exactly what jobs, HERE, are they being trained for? Sure, plenty of jobs in solar PV and wind in US and EU. But we don’t have those thing here (WE SHOULD!!!) so what is the point? Will the trained students leave? Work in hospitality after they are trained for something that is not here? Or maybe CIG and PACT will see the light and embrace renewables here!
Good on UCCI for figuring out a way to get funding from this EU programme.
The money MUST NOT be used “… for a labour market assessment, curriculum development, an after-programme assessment and the graduation ceremony.”
So you,
– don’t want them to train people to fit available jobs (labour market assessment)
– know what they are going to teach them (curriculum development)
– make sure that what they taught them was useful (after-programme assessment)
– or celebrate what they did with the funds received and thank the donors and recognise the participants (graduation ceremony)
Only funnier that you’re telling other people (EU funding agency) what to do with their money.
-I bet there were zillion assessments already
-unless they are inventing new “futuristic” jobs for the unemployed/unemployable, no need to invent the bicycle
#3 Are you kidding?
#4 nowadays celebrations start with successful potty training, from then on it never ends…so pathetic
OK let’s drop all the ‘sustainable’,’biodiversity’,resilience’ and so on tree hugger talk.
Just teach them to be Plumbers, Electricians, Carpenters and they can be useful straight away.
Keep the ‘paradigm’ and ‘strategies’ talk for civil servant speak.
Thank you!
…offered his support 🙄to the training project…
Education, re-education of unemployed Caymanians must be THE cornerstone of successful “Employment Policy”, not the proposed law reform.
Fantastic if surprising news!
Always amazed at how much it costs to actually do anything, especially with grant funding. (Not a knock on the programme. Just a fact.)
UCCI – Is the idea to, at the end of this, have a ‘sustainable construction’ course that future students can keep doing, or is it a one-off? (Really a sustainable development course, if you’re including solar tech training.)
Everybody loves grants, especially when there is no controls and accountability. I bet some money will be spent on embroidered junk and disposable t-shirts! Keep the Dump growing.