CHANGES TO broaden the curriculum and improve linkages with other institutions are underway at the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI), Kingston, and should be implemented by April of next year.
Two commissioned comprehensive studies - a needs analysis survey and an operational review - were recently conducted with a view towards implementing recommendations from these studies to improve the operations of the institution.
Lucien Rattray, Board Chairman of the CMI said the studies were done to facilitate the expansion of the Institute required by the Government and the wider region.
Mr. Rattray said the needs analysis survey was commissioned by the CMI and carried out by Dr. Ian Boxhill and other persons at the University of the West Indies. The survey was conducted within Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.
"They not only had questionnaires and interviewed persons in Jamaica but also within the region, in Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia, and had some contact in Antigua and Guyana," the Chairman informed.
The survey revealed that the CMI enjoyed recognition in the Caribbean and was seen as an acceptable institution to which residents of other sister islands would send students to study maritime transportation.
Mr. Rattray said that the survey contained recommendations to form more linkages with other land-based and maritime organisations and safety programmes. Marketing was another critical area that needed strengthening, he said.
To this end, he said the other study, an operational review, "showed that we should have an area of business development which would encompass the marketing, both for core courses and our short courses which we do at the moment."
The operational review was carried out by Trevor Hamilton Associates. The researchers interviewed CMI staff and student representatives, as well as other institutions with which CMI has affiliations.
Recommendations from both commissioned studies are urgent matters on CMI's agenda.
The CMI Chairman said that with the studies already in hand, after internal assessments, "we are going to decide on an implementation schedule to decisions that we as a Board will take in the short, medium and long term."
"By April, the budget should also reflect many of the recommendations we have accepted," he said.
