UWI supports innovation for regional growth

The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus has provided Caribbean entrepreneurs with another avenue to improve their skills.

Today, the Centre for Professional Development and Life-long Learning (CPDLL) and Lumin Consulting Inc. (formerly UWI Consulting), signed a Memorandum of Understanding to govern the delivery of short courses and certificate programmes over the next five years.

Under the agreement, the CPDLL will house, administer and market online, face-to-face, and blended short courses and certificate programmes in entrepreneurship and innovation developed by the Lumin Consulting Inc.-coordinated PitchIT Caribbean programme.

Three courses have been identified for immediate roll-out. These are:

•  The Lean Start-Up for the Caribbean Entrepreneur which provides training on the fundamentals of business development skills through the world-renowned Lean Start Up Methodology
• Investor Readiness for Caribbean Entrepreneurs which offers valuable insights into the processes involved in fundraising for their business, as well as assists entrepreneurs in developing the relevant knowledge, skills and documents needed to successfully engage investors.
• Entrepreneurial Finance which simplifies accounting, and is designed to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in the Caribbean by providing business development support for early stage entrepreneurs. Upon completion, entrepreneurs should be able to understand finance fundamentals, as well as read, interpret and develop financial statements for business diagnostics and decision-making.

PitchIT Caribbean, is part of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC), a seven-year initiative funded by the Government of Canada and executed by The World Bank Group embracing 14 English-speaking CARICOM territories.

The initiative aims to create and support the development of a strong pool of high growth-oriented, tech-enabled businesses in the Caribbean with the capacity to release their apps to the market and raise additional capital to further scale up.

Since 2016, the project has provided training, incubation and mentorship support to almost 600 entrepreneurs through online courses, virtual and face-to-face activities, as well as the flagship PitchIt Challenge event.

CMIP’s Lean Start Up and Investor Readiness courses have also helped entrepreneurs to refine their concepts, and organise their start-ups to attract and secure funding.

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Professor Eudine Barriteau, said the partnership complements the Campus’ continued push towards innovation in the region and beyond.

“From Blockchain to other cutting edge developments, The UWI Cave Hill remains at the vanguard of technological, legal, medical, and social policy innovation in the Caribbean,” she noted.

“We are therefore pleased to partner with Lumin Consulting to provide the intellectual, analytical and practical tools required to re-engineer growth and sustainability in the region.”

EPIC’s Project Manager, Sophia Muryadan of the World Bank stated that mobile innovation was one of the main pillars of the program.

“This partnership between PitchIT and the UWI Cave Hill represents the next frontier in the journey to further promote entrepreneurial and managerial facilitating the genesis and scaling up of more investable, growth oriented start- ups capable of developing a raft of exciting, cost cutting, effective solutions to the region’s pressing challenges using state of the art technologies.” (PR)