(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The second phase of a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) project to expose tertiary-level education students to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) started on Monday 10 August 2009 with a pre-mission briefing in Saint Lucia. Similar sessions for the second phase of the Students' project will be held in eight other CARICOM Member states.

Students from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College who will be travelling to Guyana as part of the project were updated on the up-coming field mission. The project, which is funded by the European Union, under the 9th EDF Caribbean Integration Support Programme (CISP) will see 225 students from nine CARICOM Member States participating during this second phase.

Representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat, the European Union, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs spoke to the students in Saint Lucia.

This project, which commenced last year, entails training youths to identify and develop responses to CSME opportunities. In 2008, 60 students from Belize, Dominica and Suriname visited Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados respectively. The objective of the project is to engage the next generation in identifying career possibilities with regard to wage employment, self-employment and starting a business in the CSME

The field missions for the second phase of the Students Engaging the CSME through Field Promotions Project will commence on 30 August 2009 and conclude on 3 October 2009. At the end of the project, tertiary students from all twelve CARICOM Member States presently participating in the CSME would be exposed to the CSME.