BRIDGETOWN, Barbados--Aspiring tech entrepreneurs across the Caribbean now have the opportunity to take part in an incubator programme designed to equip them with skills to take their businesses to the next level.
The 2019 edition of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-funded Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurship Programme (CTEP) is now open for applications from entrepreneurs and mentors from across the Bank’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs).
CTEP is a virtual incubator and accelerator programme focused on stimulating the creation and supporting the growth of technology entrepreneurship in CDB’s BMCs. The programme will provide regionally relevant capacity-building workshops and critical mentorship support to 180 entrepreneurs, beginning in January 2019.
CTEP is open to entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35, and targets three significant problems faced by Caribbean youth:
* Lack of a harmonised regional strategy for entrepreneurship and innovation, which results in lost job opportunities and untapped entrepreneurial talent;
* Limited adequate job opportunities, which leads to unemployment, limited societal contribution and a brain drain with diminished returns on regional educational investments; and
* Low inspiration and motivation among youth, resulting in apathy towards socio-economic participation and limited wealth- or value-creation activities.
CTEP is being executed and managed by the Barbados-based Orbit Innovation, using an approach comprising: intensive applied learning activities designed to develop management skills and entrepreneurial capacities; appropriate theoretical contexts that immerse entrepreneurs into interactive business innovation scenarios, modules and discussions; relevant and entrepreneur-specific practitioner and mentorship support; and Web-based business tool kits and critical skills-learning modules.
Interested entrepreneurs and mentors can learn more about qualifying criteria and register for CTEP at
www.ctep.tech .
Applications close on December 7. ~ Caribbean360 ~
