Charlestown Nevis (September 21, 2006)
One of the Nevis Island Administration’s thrust is to improve the development of its human resources. To this end, the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Human Resources sponsored two of the ten local business persons, who are currently attending a workshop in Management Techniques for Skilled Artisans and Small Contractors.
The workshop is currently being held in St. Lucia and according to Minister of Trade and Industry, the Hon Hensley Daniel, “Caribbean Development Bank paid for eight persons, but we wanted as many persons as possible to attend, so the Nevis Island Administration added two persons so that they could benefit from the workshop.“We would rather spend the money on improving the quality of our people because in the end, we would save money down the road,” said Mr. Daniel. “Given all the challenges with the CSME, the global economy, we are sure that if we continue to improve the level of skills among our business people, we will do very well in the future.”
Minister Daniel, who was on hand to witness the departure of the entrepreneurs, said the administration’s intention was the improvement of productivity. “We want to improve the quality of business management, to improve on the speed with which projects are done and to improve efficiency.
“When I looked at the course outlines and saw, understanding the bidding and tendering processes and most importantly managing employees, I believed after these men have come back they would be improved.”
In wishing the participants all the best and trust that the workshop goes smoothly, on behalf of the Nevis Island Administration, especially Premier Parry who has responsibility for Human Resources, Minister Daniel asked the participants to use every opportunity to improve on their skills.
The workshop was coordinated by the Small Enterprise Development Unit and areas to be covered are business ethics, costing and pricing techniques, job estimation techniques, competitive bidding techniques, understanding the bidding and tendering processes, general business management techniques and practices, managing employees and managing the contracted project, its deliverables and financial obligations.