– including specialisation in Oil and Gas Management
The Directors of Nations, Dr. Brian and Mrs. Pamela O’Toole, have just returned from a four-week trip to North America and the United Kingdom (UK) meeting with a series of Universities to consolidate existing partnerships and introduce new programmes.
At the Association of Business Executives (ABE) in London, the O’Tooles told INews that they met with a team of 5 senior officers including the CEO. ABE offers courses in the areas of Business, Computing, and Travel and Tourism in 232 centres throughout the world. INews also understands that Nations is now the 5th largest centre internationally and the #1 centre in the Caribbean in terms of enrolments with more than 600 students currently pursuing ABE courses.
Plans are now in train to offer the ABE courses at the School of Nations campus in New Amsterdam from March onwards. There followed a meeting with three senior managers from the University of London Law programme to organize the visit of Head of Law at the University of London to Nations in January and to further develop the LLB programme. At present 55 students are pursuing the University of London LLB degree at Nations. Plans are also in progress to offer the University of London LLB programme at the School of Nations New Amsterdam campus in the next few months. During the visit plans were finalized for Professor Simon Askey’s visit to Nations.
A new MBA programme is in the process of being approved by the University of Bedfordshire for Nations. It offers four different specialisations, including one focusing on Oil and Gas Management. The University of Bedfordshire is one of the top Universities in Britain with over 23,000 students from more than 120 countries. Whilst at the University of Bedfordshire the O’Tooles met with the Vice Chancellor, Bill Rammell, to plan a visit of four persons from the University of Bedfordshire to come to Guyana in January to help establish the programme. The Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Bedfordshire and Nations is to be signed next week.
The O’Tooles then met with a team of five persons from the University of Cambridge to secure the approval from the University of Cambridge to offer the International Diploma in Educational Leadership at Nations. This is an exciting new programme that Nations said it will introduce early in the new year for teachers from various parts of Guyana.
A meeting was also held with Dr Jim Garrison, the Head of Ubiquity University to see how Nations can benefit from the visionary programme of training that Dr Morrison and his colleagues are pioneering in a number of centres throughout the world. Whilst in the USA, the O’Tooles had a four-hour meeting with the Vice President of IHRDC – a leading training agency for oil and gas in many parts of the world. IHRDC and Nations are exploring ways in which they can collaborate together to offer technical training in the oil and gas sector at Nations. A meeting was also held with Dr Soma Stout, one ofnthe leading persons behind a visionary health care project based in the Institute of Health Care Improvement at Harvard Medical School. An outcome of the meeting is that now the 6th Formers at Nations School of Sixth Form Studies will be part of a worldwide movement to improve health conditions for their peers.
Nations is also in consultation with an agency in USA, Brain Rx, that offers individualised training programmes for children with special needs. In a statement to INews, Nations said it is planning to bring this programme to Guyana to offer individualised help to both children with learning difficulties and, at the other end of the continuum gifted children who are looking for fresh challenges.
On the 17th February Nations will host an Education Fair at Nations in Georgetown. A number of Universities from USA, Canada, United Kingdom and the Caribbean will come to School of Nations to present an overview of the courses they offer. Some of the Off Shore Medical Schools in Georgetown will also be attending. The Art School of the University of Miami, Humber College from Canada and the ACCA headquarters in Trinidad have already confirmed their participation.
Also in the Summer of 2017, Nations said it will offer two, one-week, training courses in the Arts, one training course will be at School of Nations in Georgetown, from 10th to 14th July and the other training will be at School of Nations in New Amsterdam from 17th to 21st July.
Both these courses are being organised in collaboration with the University of Miami Art School and will offer training in fine art, graphic design, video production, photography and fashion design. These workshops will be offered at three levels: for primary school students, secondary school students and for adults.
More information on all these initiatives can be obtained from the Nations website: www.nations.gy and from its Facebook pages: SchoolOfTheNations and NationsUniversityGuyana and by calling Nations or visiting Nations in Georgetown and in Stanleytown, Berbice.
