The College of the West Indies (The UWI) has superior a brand new partnership section with Caribbean Airways (CAL) following the regional airline’s funding in a structured on-the-job coaching programme for college students to boost their tutorial journeys.
Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, and Chief Government Officer at CAL, Garvin Medera signed an MOU on October 27, formalising the initiative conceptualised in October 2022 and piloted earlier this 12 months.
The 2 main Caribbean entities are longstanding companions who share a deep dedication to creating the area’s human capital sources. This partnership is one more demonstration of a pillar in UWI’s strategic plan targeted on fostering academic-industry alliances. The College can also be dedicated to producing all-rounded graduates which might be well-equipped to construct the Caribbean and form the world, and programmes like these with CAL assist to perform this whereas being attentive to stakeholder suggestions on the standard and profession readiness of its graduates.
Throughout the MOU signing ceremony, Vice-Chancellor expressed that it was reflective of The UWI’s legacy as an indigenous Caribbean establishment in its 75th 12 months and becoming to have fun this milestone, significantly throughout the commencement season, by formalising its partnership with CAL, one other Caribbean establishment of excellence. He famous that 20 years in the past, The UWI’s inhabitants consisted of roughly 20,000 college students, and right now, it’s an estimated 50,000.
The area and CAL have been the beneficiaries of that doubling of UWI college students. Vice-Chancellor Beckles described the UWI-CAL relationship as dialectically linked, “That is thrilling for us. We see our future as built-in. We thanks for investing in our college students and our younger individuals right here and sooner or later.”
Delivering remarks on the signing, Mr Medera, who shared that he’s a proud UWI alumnus famous that it’s significantly important that two establishments that have been conceptualised by the Caribbean’s “federation fathers” are working hand in hand to assist the event of the area’s college students. He defined, “The target of this programme is obvious and profound.
We’re offering a singular alternative for college students of The UWI to achieve sensible, related work expertise and coaching inside numerous departments of Caribbean Airways. It’s about bridging the hole between principle and apply, between the classroom and the true world,” and reiterated that Caribbean Airways is dedicated to increasing the programme regionally.
This new MOU builds on earlier engagements of CAL adopting interns from The UWI St. Augustine Campus’ College of Engineering, Division of Electrical and Pc Engineering in 2018 and 2019, and from the College of Social Sciences (FSS), Division of Economics in 2021.
Signalling an curiosity in creating extra structured internship preparations to assist initiatives throughout all its divisions that may very well be scaled throughout the area, CAL engaged The UWI’s Workplace of International Affairs in October 2022 to help with creating a framework for a pilot programme designed to boost the scholars’ sensible expertise and competencies {and professional} improvement.
With the appreciable assist of the Colleges and the Division of Scholar Companies and Improvement, the pilot efficiently launched in January 2023 with the recruitment of the primary cohort from the FSS to assist CAL’s advertising and marketing operate as they launched into launching their new “Welcome Residence” marketing campaign, in addition to to assist income administration groups. A complete of 10 interns have been engaged from March to September 2023, with 6 of those being provided an extension of the internship for an additional six months based mostly on their wonderful efficiency. Eight new interns within the second cohort will be a part of the prolonged first cohort from October 2023 to April 2024.
The scholars employed come from numerous disciplines together with advertising and marketing, economics, administration, electrical engineering, pc science, banking and finance, accounting, communication research, human useful resource administration and undertaking administration. The second cohort will add worth to CAL undertaking groups from an expanded group of purposeful areas, together with reservations, company communications and enterprise optimization.
Khemronn Felix, who just lately earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Research with a minor in Advertising and marketing shared, “The internship taught me the significance of networking …and the importance of constructing an expert community. By way of networking, I used to be lucky sufficient to have people who have been prepared to mentor me. It offered me with a profound sense of steering and assist that prolonged far past the scope of my internship and tutorial pursuits. These mentors generously shared their knowledge, experiences, and views, serving to me navigate the complexities and challenges of each the skilled world and my private development journey.”
Pradevi Haroop, who has a Bachelor of Science diploma in Statistics and Economics, expressed, “The previous 8 months at Caribbean Airways has been nothing wanting an distinctive expertise for me. I used to be assigned to the Income Administration division together with three different interns, the place we primarily assisted with knowledge evaluation and reporting whereas additionally engaged on a income monitoring undertaking…Initially, I used to be a bit overwhelmed as we have been being educated to supply our reviews as wanted. By collaborating with others on this undertaking and my day by day and month-to-month duties, I used to be in a position to harness the advantages of teamwork and partnership however we additionally found methods to maximise one another’s strengths.”
The October 27 MOU signing was witnessed by The UWI’s Professional Vice-Chancellor of International Affairs, Ms Sandrea Maynard whose workplace led the brokering of the partnership. Additionally in attendance have been Professional Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the St. Augustine Campus, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, College Registrar/Chief Administrative Officer Dr Maurice D. Smith, along with the coed interns and different personnel from The UWI and CAL.
Within the subsequent section of the event, CAL goals to scale the programme throughout the opposite campuses of The UWI and proceed supporting pupil improvement in different areas such because the sponsorship of commencement awards to excessive performing college students throughout the regional UWI system.
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