Three UWI students awarded Spirit Industry internships

THREE Business students from the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) are being given the opportunity for a three-month internship at West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD)/Maison Ferrand with their export team in the USA or Europe.

The internship, which will run from September 1 to November 30, will afford the students the opportunity for firsthand training in the areas of sales, marketing, brand-building, and inventory management in the export spirit industry.

Announcing the internship yesterday, Principal of The UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor the Most Honourable Eudine Barriteau, said it is part of a wider programme of collaboration between the campus and the WIRD.

She also appealed to other employers to partner with The UWI Cave Hill Campus to create more training opportunities for students.

“The world of work is changing rapidly; there is now an even greater pressure being placed on graduates to be work-ready. For instance, in a constantly evolving job market, there are career opportunities in existence today that were not even thought of a few years ago.

“As a university, we think of ourselves as training persons for a variety of opportunities. We believe it is our responsibility to train our students to think creatively, to be adaptable, to be receptive to new knowledge and to instil in them values about how best they can serve their communities and countries. We urge businesses and other enterprises, therefore, to help these graduates improve their skills by exposing them to on-the-job training opportunities,” Barriteau said.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Maison Ferrand USA, Guillaume Lamy, reflected on his own career, saying he was happy to partner with The UWI, Cave Hill to help students achieve similar success.

“Maison Ferrand hired me 22 years ago as a French young marketing student. At that time, we were producing fine spirits such as Cognac, Gin and Liqueur, all made in France, from a French tradition. When I was parachuted to the US, the idea was that I would do more than represent fine spirits, I would represent a culture, and the French traditions that these spirits were made from.

“Twenty-two years later, I am very thankful to Maison Ferrand. Their cultural experiment of sending a young French guy to the US worked. Today, we are a full-fledged Barbados Rum producer. Following the same model that I used to build my own career, I am very proud to finally bring in young, talented business students into our organisation, not to represent rum, but to represent the Caribbean traditions that these rums were made from,” he said.

The interns will be based in Dallas, Texas and Chicago, Illinois in the US; and in London, United Kingdom.

They will be paid a monthly stipend, as well as all accommodation for the duration of the internship.