After we had spoken with Visiting Professor at the University of Guyana’s School of Enterprise, Business and Innovation (SEBI), Professor Leyland Lucas, and his support staff early last week, we headed across to the new facility created to house the School.
Stabroek Business had been told in an interview, months earlier, with the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, that much of the focus of SEBI would be on building a stronger ‘real world’ connection between the University and the business community, the thrust of his argument being that it made little sense having a University that was not really going anywhere in terms of helping to provide the skills needed to drive what has long been referred to as ‘the engine of growth,’ the private sector.
We had benefitted, as well, from an thorough earlier briefing from the Vice Chancellor, at a session that had also included SEBI’s Head, Professor Lucas, on the origins and purpose of SEBI and particularly on the role that local entrepreneurs and the wider business community had played in the conceptualization of the institution and including arriving at a determination as to the particular role that it would play.
