Partnership between Private Sector Firms/Entrepreneurs and Training/Education Institution

The Ministry of Planning and Development has recently issued a Call for Proposals through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) initiative, Global Services Promotion Programme: Employers Owning the Skills Agenda. This call invites businesses throughout the industry to partner with academic institutions and training providers to present proposals for public funding to finance a skills development programme, tailored to industry needs through Information Technology-enabled Services (ITeS) such as application development, business process outsourcing, mobile technology, programming, website development etc. 

All businesses in the Service Sector that have core processes which are enabled by Information Technology can participate in this Call for Proposals. Among others, these encompass industries such as:
- Animation
- Arts, Entertainment and Recreation 
- Computing Services and Information Systems
- Health Care
- Telecommunications
- Education
- Professional, Scientific and Technical activities
- Manufacturing

The full Call for Proposals can be found at: http://www.globalskills.gov.tt/

In light of the above, the University is undertaking a centralized approach sanctioned by the Office of the President in seeking industry partnerships for proposal development. In this context, the University’s key role would be that of partner as the training/education institution, focusing on 
• Development of Training Modules
• Delivery of Training
• Certification of Training

We are therefore requesting UTT faculty and staff liaise with your industry counterparts to determine their interests in pursuing this grant opportunity bearing in mind the categories of support and the firms’ eligibility criteria: 

• Be privately owned
• Currently exporting or wishing to do so in the future
• In operation for at least ten (10) months
• Employers can be locally or internationally based, but need to be registered in Trinidad and Tobago
• Firms must not be state-owned


Internal University Procedure:

1. Faculty and Staff contact Eligible Firms/Entrepreneurs to determine interest in applying to the Global Services Promotion Programme Call for Proposals.
2. Faculty and Staff complete the Expression of Interest (EOI) Form and submit to the International Office and Grant Funding Unit (IOGF) at grantsupport@utt.edu.tt by 28th April, 2017.
3. Internal designate committee performs evaluation and short listing of EOIs by May 3rd, 2017. Notification of shortlist to be provided by May 4th, 2017. 
4. IOGF team finalises the Letter of Interest in collaboration with the faculty/staff and interested firm/entrepreneur by May 5th, 2017.
5. Letter of Expression of Interest and Firm/Entrepreneur Incorporation documents submitted to the Global Services Promotion Programme by May 9th, 2017.

Interested applicants can contact the following persons for further information: 

1. Mrs. Patti Mohan-Thompson – Grants Coordinator, International Office and Grant Funding at 642-8888 Ext 46122 - patti.mohan@utt.edu.tt 
2. Mrs. Debra Haniff-Gobin – Grants and Proposals Writer, International Office and Grant Funding at 642-8888 Ext. 46118 – debra.haniff@utt.edu.tt

Click here to download Expression of Interest Form