SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Jorien Wuite, has announced that the ministry will be hosting a Creative Industries Interactive Exchange Forum, CIIEF, on March 21st, 2018 with an aim to encourage and fuel sensitization of the arts as a valuable contributor to the socio-economic sphere as well as to recognize and stimulate the role of the arts in the healing process of the island- especially amongst its young people.

The forum, consisting of workshops, presentations, as well as a panel discussion, targets key stakeholders in the field to facilitate open communication between the involved ministries and those directly executing and involved in the creative industries. Through workshops, stakeholders will be given a platform to share their insights on the creative needs, the formation of an artists guild, and the establishment of a cultural prize on St. Maarten. The input and findings of the creative community will be presented to a representative of the ministry as a proposed channel in achieving the goals of the Ministry Resiliency Plan; to support artists as entrepreneurs, to develop the creative industries as a successful economic sector, and to recharge life-long contribution to the arts.

The Creative Industries Interactive Exchange Forum is the first project designed by the Intern Desk of MECYS, which began as a practical concept to the cabinet in January. Two interns, Iris Hakkens and Dwayne Griffith, were selected with an assignment of “Producing a proposal for and the planning and execution of an Entrepreneurial Creative Industries conference and panel discussion.” Both students devote ten hours a week to the project; Dwayne, a local student currently studying Entrepreneurship at Watson University in Colorado, USA works remotely while Iris, who is pursuing a propaedeutic degree in International Public Management at The Hague University of Applied Sciences is currently on island and works out of the Cabinet office.

The project/assignment-based internship provides students pursuing tertiary education in areas of public administration and/or management or political studies an opportunity to acquire work experience and gain insight into the workings of the government organization. The Intern Desk is a complement to the Business Outreach and Placement Program- BOPP- of the Department of Youth with a specific focus on the functions of the cabinet. “I believe in horizontal and vertical mobility within government organization, providing the space for young professionals and the opportunity for their professional growth. In other words, facilitating ministerial ‘Brain Gain.’ I champion the enablement of young people entering the work force through the provision of a training venue,” Minister Wuite said of the Intern Desk. “I thank both Iris and Dwayne for the commitment and hard work they have displayed. With their success I look forward to further facilitating the Intern Desk concept.”