Wallace, who along with CHSB Programme Manager Gloria McKinney-Lashley visited Guyana earlier this week, told Stabroek Business that the Cave Hill School of Business was seeking to further popularize its curriculum in Guyana in order to enhance the School’s contribution to meeting public and private sector human resource needs here.
CHSB offers three levels of academic training. At the undergraduate level the school offers an Executive Diploma in Management. Successful completion of the Diploma enables students to enroll in the School’s Executive Masters Degree in Business Administration and, subsequently, the doctoral programme.
Guyanese MBA graduates of the CSHB include various private and public sector functionaries including Head of the Privatization Unit Winston Brassington, President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association Ramesh Dookhoo and Chief Executive Officer of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, Ramesh Ghir.
The CHSB team was due to meet with its local alumni and Wallace told Stabroek Business that part of the purpose of that meeting was to encourage graduates of the School to popularize its courses locally.
On Tuesday the CHSB team met with Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman Captain Gerry Gouveia during which discussions ensued on the possible role of the CHSB in enhancing the human resource capacity of the local private sector. During the discussion Captain Gouveia told the CHSB officials that he felt that it might be useful to explore the possibility of designing courses to meet the particular needs of private entities in Guyana and offering them locally. He said that apart from the specific application of the courses to particular private sector needs here in Guyana “the issue of the cost is obviously a factor and if we can have the CHSB offering in-service training here in Guyana that would obviously work considerably to our advantage,” Gouveia said.
During the discussion with the CHSB team the PSC Chairman said that he would also wish to see a collaborative initiative involving the CHSB and the University of Guyana. “You are aware that there have been some collaborative initiatives involving the University of Guyana and the private sector and it seems to me that it might not be inappropriate to suggest that there might be a role for the Cave Hill Business School here,” Gouveia said.
Asked whether she felt that collaboration between UG and the CHSB might be possible Wallace said that she thought such collaboration was both possible and feasible. “We are prepared to work in various ways with regional institutions to help develop capacity,” she said.
The Cave Hill team was also scheduled to meet with Public Service Minister Jennifer Westford earlier this week to discuss the role that the CHSB can play in enhancing capacity in the public sector.
The executive Masters in Business Administration offered by the CHSB is a two-year programme intended for experienced executives who seek to maximize their development opportunities. Wallace told Stabroek Business that the School’s MBA programme, which has been in place for more than ten years affords participants “opportunities to explore the latest management thinking, acquire knowledge and skills in all areas of general management and gain insight into specialist areas through a wide-ranging portfolio of courses.”
The CHSB’s MBA programme is open to persons who are graduates of an approved university or who, in the opinion of the UWI, possess the equivalent professional qualification. The programme is also open to holders of the CHSB’s Executive Diploma in Management and senior managers who can commit themselves to a rigorous and flexible two-year programme of academic studies. The CHSB’s Executive MBA provides for specialization in General Management, Public Sector Management and Human Resource Management.
Wallace told Stabroek Business that while the CHSB continually monitors developments in the international academic community all of its programmes “are designed with the Caribbean business environment very much in mind.” She said that facilitators for the CHSB are drawn both from academia and from business and commerce. “That way our learners are able to gather not only the theory and concepts that are established, but they are also able to get an understanding of how those theories are applied in a Caribbean context,” she added.
Meanwhile, McKinney-Lashley told Stabroek Business that the CHSB was also concerned with using its curriculum in support of the development of the public sector in the Caribbean. “The needs of governments in the region are changing and the people who work in the public sector have to respond to those changing needs,” McKinney-Lashley said. She said that the Cave Hill Public Service Institute, (CHPSI) which is part of the CHSB was currently offering a range of courses designed to enhance capacity in regional public services including management, supervisory skills, customer service, strategic planning, financial planning, speech crafting and writing skills. McKinney-Lashley told Stabroek Business that the development of the courses being offered by the Cave Hill Public Service Institute has evolved out of research undertaken by the CHSB into the particular needs of regional public services. “We have been having consultative meetings with other business schools in the Caribbean and the Commonwealth Secretariat, among other institutions,” McKinney-Lashley told Stabroek Business.
McKinney-Lashley told Stabroek Business that the focus of the CHPSI was on “developing a global community of leaders through our academic and executive development programmes,” which, she said, were “geared towards professional development, knowledge development and capacity building.” Additionally, McKinney-Lashley told Stabroek Business that CHPSI will also offer timely and relevant programmes geared towards enhancing overall competencies and capabilities at all levels of public officers.
Asked about the level of interest in the CHSB’s programme among Guyanese Wallace said there was “vast enthusiasm” among Guyanese for the programme. “This is one of the factors that led us to migrate our programmes, especially the academic ones, from the face-to-face approach to the on-line environment, in 2006.What we were seeking to do was to respond to the lament that while people wanted to come to the programme they could not afford the implications of travel given considerations of work and family life. Now that our programmes are on-line the level of interest here in Guyana has increased,” Wallace said.
Meanwhile, Wallace disclosed that the CHSB has been running training for trainers programmes in Guyana in conjunction with Caspar Investments, a privately-owned local company. “This programme is designed to help people with the aptitude for training to become better trainers. What this means is that organizations can have their own trainers and its own training facility,” Wallace said.
