(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Nineteen students from tertiary institutions in Grenada are participating in a CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) mission to Belize next week – 30 August – 4 September 2015. The activity is part of a CARICOM Secretariat public education project which exposes tertiary students to the CSME through field missions. With funding from the European Union, the students from Grenada institutions will travel to Belize and diagnose the operations of the CSME. 

The objective of the project is to engage the next generation in identifying career opportunities in the field with regard to wage employment, self employment and starting a business in the CSME. The tertiary students along with a Grenada CARICOM Youth Ambassador (CYA) will meet with the Belize Government Ministries and Departments responsible for Labour, Commerce, Immigration, and for issuing local CARICOM Skills Certificates. The mission will also meet senior personnel from the local Central Bank and regional service companies.

Accompanying the mission are representatives from the CARICOM Secretariat, the Grenada CSME Focal Point, and a lecturer from a Grenada tertiary institution. In April this year, thirty eight tertiary students and two CYAs from Dominica and Belize were also exposed in similar missions to Saint Lucia and Grenada respectively. The project – Students Engaging the CSME through Field Promotion - was first initiated in 2008 and lasted until 2009. It is expected that this current project will last until the end of 2015.