Sixty years after its establishment, the Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies faces the continuing challenge of equipping working people with qualifications, knowledge and critical skills to navigate a changing economy, all in an effort to shape the future of the Caribbean.
Established in 1966 to advance the education of working people, the College has expanded from its early focus on Labour Studies and Industrial Relations to include Cooperative Studies, Human Resource Management, Occupational Safety and Health, Project Management and other specialised disciplines.
During the College’s Lecture Series in commemoration of the milestone anniversary, the officer in charge, Sheldon Salino, explained the success of the College over the past two decades.
“Over the last 20 years, approximately 39,000 students have enrolled in various programmes of the college. This is something we should definitely celebrate.”
Labour Studies Dean Akins Vidale argued that the College endeavours to ensure that students have the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions in a world increasingly shaped by technology and an abundance of information.
“In a world flooded with content, where much of it is false, much of it is fake news, the worker needs something more than a search bar. The worker needs methodology, the worker needs discernment, and the worker needs a place that teaches you how to think critically.”
Sharing these sentiments, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Wendy Augustus, said the institution aims to ensure no one is left behind.
“The world is moving from oil to green and from paper to AI. The CCLCS must ensure that the worker is not left behind in that transition, that he is retrained and not retrenched.”
In the Cooperative sector, the College’s Dean for Cooperative Studies, Colin Bartholomew, stressed the importance of education to the movement’s ability to function effectively.
“A member who does not understand the balance sheet cannot hold the board to account. A volunteer who does not understand governance and risk cannot protect the member savings. A young person who has never been told what a cooperative is will not recognise the signal at all, and they will follow the noise.”
Featured speaker Professor Anthony Bogues argued that working people must be recognised as contributors to the Caribbean’s economic production.
“Those persons are not just economic resources, but I would want to argue that they are a set of human resources. And it is those persons, those social groups, not just the social group of working people, that I would want to argue that if we pay attention to that some of the major problems in our countries will actually have a possibility of being solved.”