The Barbados JOBS Initiative (Job Opportunity for Business Start Up)—a partnership between the Institute for International Business (IIB) and the Cave Hill School of Business (CHSB) at the University of the West Indies—will provide critical entrepreneurship training to the Barbados region, helping the area combat growing social and economic issues by increasing the skills needed to compete in a globalized market.
Kelley School faculty, leveraging the expertise of Kelley's highly ranked Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, are working with CHSB to develop:
- A comprehensive entrepreneurship program for MBAs, and
- Instructional curriculum for undergraduate students and current and prospective entrepreneurs.
Under the Barbados JOBS Initiative to date, the following initiatives are underway:
- The IIB has started training key CHSB faculty on curriculum, program, and incubator development.
- The CHSB has completed the curriculum for 13 new entrepreneurship course offerings.
- Two new programs—a Diploma in Entrepreneurship and a Master's in Entrepreneurship—have been approved by CHSB's administration.
These programs began in fall of 2011. Funded by the Barbados JOBS Initiative grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Higher Education for Development (HED), this $1.35 million, three-year grant began in Barbados in March of 2011 with plans to expand to the Eastern Caribbean states of St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.