UPU News : New Caribbean Postal Training Centre starts operations

17.09.2014 - Twenty-two postal staff from the Caribbean are today concluding the very first workshop to be held at a new postal training centre in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Barbados Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite officially opened the training centre alongside (from l. to r.) Postmaster General Joel Brathwaite, Caribbean Postal Union Secretary General Sandra Davoren and the UPU's Abdelilah Boussetta.

 

The workshop, on how to effectively integrate customs, transport, security and domestic operations, is the first of many that will now be delivered at the training facility inaugurated this week.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU) and the Government of Barbados worked together to establish the facility, designed to help strengthen postal staff’s competencies and the region’s capacity.

Using a train-the-trainer approach, 1,280 people are expected to be trained by 2016 on topics ranging from operations, quality of service and e-commerce to product management and more.

The idea is to train a certain number of people at the Bridgetown facility, so they can then train their own colleagues back home.

New era

Opening the centre on Monday 15 September, Adriel Brathwaite, attorney general and minister of home affairs, said the Caribbean Postal Training Centre came at a critical time, when postal administrators in the region were grappling with greater demands and expectations from their stakeholders.

“It will signal a new era for the ongoing training of postal managers and assist significantly in the advancement of the sector generally,” he said.

At the recent annual meeting of the Caribbean Postal Union, UPU Director General Bishar Hussein encouraged  the region’s governments and postal organizations to support the centre and make good use of it.

The postal training centre is part of the main goals of the UPU’s Caribbean development plan, which includes developing human resources to increase their technical knowledge and expertise in the postal sector.

“The new training centre will make the delivery of training programmes in the region more cost-effective and efficient,” added the UPU’s director for development cooperation, Abdelilah Boussetta, who attended the inauguration.

The next workshop, on sustainable development, is scheduled in November.