Nineteen students from Antigua and Barbuda will be heading to Barbados for one week from September 27 to October 3, as part of a special exchange project under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

The Students Engaging the CSME through Field Promotion is a collaboration between the CARICOM Secretariat, the CSME Public Education Programme and Barbados’ National Focal Point, and is facilitated under the 10th European Development Fund CSME Economic Integration Programme.

Acting Prime Minister, Richard Sealy, will deliver the feature address at the opening ceremony for the programme on Monday, September 28, at the CSME Unit, Sky Mall, Haggatt Hall, St. Michael, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The Promotion involves mobilising and training tertiary students about how to identify and develop responses to CSME opportunities such as market access and entry, the Right of Establishment, Provision of Services, the Movement of Goods, the Movement of Capital and the Movement of People.

While in Barbados, the students will interact with officials from ministries and departments responsible for Labour, Commerce, and Immigration; and visit a number of organisations, including the Immigration Department, the Barbados Accreditation Council, the Central Bank, the Customs Department, the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries, and the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office. They will also tour Bridgetown, the Barbados Port Authority, Harrison’s Cave and the West India Biscuit Company.

Students will be accompanied by a lecturer and a CARICOM Youth Ambassador, and at the end of the visit, they will be presented with certificates during a closing ceremony on Friday, October 2, at the Blue Horizon Hotel, Rockley, Christ Church, beginning at 7:00 p.m. In turn, a cohort of Barbadian students will visit Jamaica at a later date.

The Students Engaging the CSME through Field Promotion initiative began in 2008 under the 9th European Development Fund Caribbean Integration Support Programme. Some 283 university and college students in CSME Member States have so far been mobilised and trained. The overall objective is to engage the next generation to identify career opportunities in the field with regard to wage employment, self-employment, and skills to start a business.

cathy.lashley@barbados.gov.bb