Barriteau: UWI ready to help
Principal of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus, Professor Eudine Barriteau says that institution is ready to play its part to help strengthen the public service in Barbados.
Speaking at Illaro Court moments before signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between that educational institution and the Government of Barbados, she said that such is needed as today’s public sector is quite different than that of the mid-twentieth-century, and so it must continue to evolve if it is to meet the needs of the country.
“As this MOU emphasises, The UWI has the capacity to improve public sector leadership, strengthen management capability and enrich research skills, all towards enhancing the crafting of public policy. At the University we intend to use our expertise to strengthen public sector training and research so as to improve the quality and efficiency of the public
service in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean,” she said.
The university principal made the point while maintaining that “every country needs a public service that operates effectively, efficiently and innovatively as it engages the public, monitors the progress of projects, tackles problems and makes strategic decisions”. With that in mind, Barriteau said that this requires constant access to training and education so as to secure the essential knowledge and expertise that is critical for operating in the global environment.
To that end, she spoke of the university’s Centre for Professional Development and Lifelong Learning (CPDLL) which she said provides such a service for employees. She explained that with over 50 short courses covering a comprehensive and extensive range of areas, it helps persons to remain competitive or to enhance their immediate employment prospects.
“I am very pleased to state that public sector employees will find additional opportunities for self-improvement and career advancement when we at Cave Hill Campus launch ‘A School of Government and Public Policy’. The Cave Hill Campus recognises that effective governance and policy implementation are critical to sustainable growth as well as the social and economic development of Barbados and Caribbean countries. We have established the School of Governance and Public Policy, as a multi-disciplinary cluster of specialised certificates and courses, within a broad portfolio of innovative programmes… These programmes are designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of public servants, which is necessary to implement public policy that results in the achievement of economic growth, sustainable development and societal advancement,” she added.
Professor Barriteau made it clear that the School is not a physical structure, but instead will be a specialised programming division aligned with the existing CPDLL. She went further, indicating that it will offer specialised programmes in the overlapping the fields of management, public administration, public finance and government.
“Dr. Dion Greenidge and his colleagues have already designed such a comprehensive training programme, which will be offered in modules targeting three levels of public service employment – those who come in at entry level for new members of the service, the middle management, and executive leadership, the senior leadership. This initiative enables civil servants to retool, contextualise the significance of their functions, but more critically, facilitate governments in realising thedelivery of their development goals,” she added.
To that end, she noted that the primary purpose of the School of Government and Public Policy is to build resilience and innovation within the Caribbean public sector. She made the point while noting that this is imperative to revitalise Caribbean development, which she said is part of the mission of the UWI. (JRT)