MTI December Lime

Well, MTI you impressed! It was our first “lime” and I suspect it definitely won’t be our last! As we switched venues from the Centre of Excellence in 2008 to the Old Fire Station Building in 2009, we also took the opportunity to change the format of our end of year function. Calling it “MTI’s December Lime”, it was hosted by popular radio personality, Jason Williams (JW) who did an excellent job in getting MTI staffers on their feet and onto the dance floor, but let’s not jump the gun.

The afternoon began with entertainment by popular parang band Los Alumnos de San Juan who, coupled with ample amounts of food and drink, put Trade staff members in quite a festive mood. After a few welcoming words by our Minister, Senator The Honourable Mariano Browne and our Permanent Secretary, Mr. Carl Francis our first set of door prizes were drawn. The lucky winners were Lorraine Barrow of the Library, Lystra Warren-Lewis, Receptionist and Avis Thompson formerly of Corporate Services.

This was followed by our “Word Hunt” a game where staff members were randomly chosen and given envelopes containing letters, which they then had to use to create words. This was organized confusion as words such as “Happy Navidad” were formed. However a winning team emerged with the words “Happy Holidays” perfectly formed in bold red letters.

After Los Alumnos gave us a second lively set, our second set of door prizes were drawn and this time our lucky winners were Operator, Joan Steed, June Victor of Accounts and Shivvone Lovelace of the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat.

It was our special guest artiste however that sent the lime into overdrive. Kees Dieffenthaller of Kees The Band gave a great performance serenading the ladies of MTI who were quite appreciative. The evening ended with staffers having a great time on the dance floor even forming a conga line which was led by none other than JW.

Look at how much fun we had….

MTI launches the International Trade Professional Programme

On Monday 7^th, December 2009 MTI launched the International Trade Professional Programme(ITPP). The two year graduate trainee programme which is targeted towards recipients of national scholarships from the Ministry of Public Administration is designed to give those who pursued studies in Trade, Economics and Business the opportunity to gain hands on experience in the world of work. Having participated in The Ministry of Public Administration’s Career Fair in 2008 and 2009, MTI is no stranger to the returning scholars and they were quite excited to begin there tenure here.

In addition to assisting the returning scholars in fulfilling their obligatory service, the ITPP is also intended to build our human resource capital by honing the skills of the young professionals, because they will eventually become the Negotiators, Economists and Trade Specialists that will continue developing our economy and trade policies.

Starting of with a week of orientation to MTI, the graduate trainees were able to get an overview of all the departments within the Ministry. Even other staff members were given the opportunity for their knowledge to be refreshed throughout the five days by sitting in on various sessions .

Strategically placed throughout the Ministry’s core directorates, namely, Business Development, Policy and Strategy and Trade, the university graduates will have a chance to work within each one as well as have an opportunity to spend some time at a few of our state agencies to be able to understand their roles in fulfilling MTI's mandate of developing the economy, growing business and encouraging investment. So we take this opportunity to welcome them to the MTI family and trust that they enjoy a rich experience.

Trade Talk Trivia.....lets go!

Let me firstly apologise for our long break in transmission, but we’re back now and have lots have lots to tell you! On Friday 20th November, we held another installment Trade Talk Trivia. Hosted by the very witty Errol Fabien, our two teams, dubbed the ‘Scratch Heads’ and the ‘Inaudibles’ were quite entertaining as they scratched their heads (pun very much intended) trying to answer questions based on our blog posts. The ‘Scratch Heads’ whose members were Avlon Hamid of Registry, June Victor of Accounts, Mario Romany of the Business Directorate and Robert Martinez also of the Business Directorate, took on the boisterous “Inaudibles” whose members were, Justin Pantin and Stacey Honore both of the Business Directorate, Christian Morris of MIS and Avonelle Browne, our head Accountant.

Errol and the teams provided much entertainment for our lively “studio audience”, which was made up from members from our various floors as well as our Licensing Unit.

All participating team members were given prizes for their sportsmanship, or should I say 'talkmanship', but the eventual winners were the ‘Scratch Heads’ who earned themselves a lovely basket filled with all sorts of goodies. They drew, acted and shouted their way to victory and now hold the title of Trade Talk Trivia Champions.

We say congratulations to the ‘Scratch Heads’ and hope ‘Inaudibles’ have better luck the next time. We look forward to seeing a new team for our next installment and want you to continue blogging on!

Take a look at how much fun we had…