Activities to be funded include:

a) Technology/Business Incubation – The project gives support for the incubation of businesses in the IT or IT enabled services industry. The support expected to be in the form of Business incubation grants to small IT start-up companies in SVG to acquire appropriate technical, management, financing or market knowledge skills, as well as technical assistance to assist them to access global incubation network support. The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has already established a Centre of Excellence at the Diamond Industrial Estate, which could be one of the primary beneficiaries of this support. Funds under this component would therefore support the Government’s efforts to develop more sustainable ICT Centres of Excellence, by providing support for business development/incubation aimed at strengthening ICT-enabled industry in the region with clear synergies among the various participating countries. The Centre of Excellence through the National Centre for Technological Innovation (NCTI) is expected to form part of a regional network of innovation centres that will position the region as an attractive destination for ICT business.

b) Skills Development and Certification Program – This activity will provide a training grants program to public and/or private institutions to train trainers as well as professionals, in key niche areas for IT/ITES development in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with a specific focus on new graduates. The Project resources will complement on-going efforts of the NCTI, which is already providing training and certification to young graduates in IT – related skills (e.g. software/apps development, database management, web development), and will support conformity to regionally harmonized curricula. Support under the project will be for conducting a globally benchmarking assessment of IT and ITES skills and certification for IT graduates, as well as the development of a training of trainers program for IT and ITES skills. The support will facilitate the mutual recognition of this certification at the regional level and possibly at the international level as well.