ISSUE 24 – Article 5

March 23, 2020

­­­DEVELOPING THE LABOUR POOL IN THE FINANCE & ACCOUNTING BPO SECTOR

The T&T IFC continues its efforts to facilitate the creation of sustainable jobs by attracting foreign direct investment in the Finance & Accounting (F&A) BPO sector. One such initiative governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Incus Services and UWI-ROYTEC signed 22nd January 2020, is a pilot Data Analytics and Data Science programme aimed at training over 200 financial services professionals. It is our aim to begin the programme later in 2020 when business operations in the country have normalised.

In today’s world, good decision-making relies on data and data analysis. Professionals must develop the skills they need to make informed decisions using data, and to communicate the results effectively. The T&T IFC is confident that a nationwide pipeline of data analytics and AI professionals can be created, thereby enhancing our ability to offer a highly skilled workforce as an attractive investment incentive.

To launch the pilot programme, the T&T IFC hosted a webinar on 11th February, entitled ‘Introduction to Data Analytics’. The session was powered by PricewaterCoopers (PwC), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT). Sylvannas Berkeley, VP BPO/Shared Services Development, commented that “the webinar was aimed at sharing information on the benefits of data analytics to a local financial service professional and the trends being leveraged by many companies and governments across the globe.”

Training Collaboration MoU being signed by (l-r) Sylvannas Berkeley, VP BPO/Shared Services Development, T&T IFC; Omar Sultan-Khan, CEO, T&T IFC; Wendy Augustus, Executive Director, UWI-Roytec; Leslie Lee Fook, Director, Incus Services