MOBILE phone company Digicel has been sponsoring a number of initiatives undertaken by the island’s main tertiary institutions, in a move it said was geared at improving the “learning environment and educational opportunities of Jamaican youth.”

For example, Digicel has agreed to be the sole telecommunications sponsor for events and programmes being implemented by student unions at the University of the West Indies (UWI), University of Technology (UTech) and Northern Caribbean University (NUC).

“This telecommunications provider sees the forging of the closer liaison between itself and tertiary students as a natural progression in its involvement with students at all levels of the education system,” the company said in a statement.

“Since inception in 2001, we have implemented a variety of support programmes for educational institutions. We have been a major sponsor for School’s Challenge Quiz. Our ‘School Rules’ and ‘School Tours’ programmes for high schools are ongoing and take our staff into the schools to give advise to students on career opportunities, educational programmes and promoting safe sex,” the statement quoted Wayne Miller, Digicel’s marketing communications manager saying.

“During this year, Digicel has turned increased focus to students at tertiary institutions. We have agreed to be the headline sponsor on all activities or events being staged by the Student Union and Guild at UWI, UTECH and NCU,” he added.

Digicel has also sponsored events such as the NCU Golf Tournament, carnival at UTECH and UWI and the UTECH tag drive.

The non-profit organisation established by Digicel (Digicel Foundation), has also been involved in “stimulating improvement at the tertiary level,” the release continued.

“The foundation this year established a Chair in Telecommunications policy and Management at UWI, headed by Dr Hopeton Dunn, in an effort to make more training opportunities available to people of the Caribbean, in the booming telecommunications sector.”

The Digicel Foundation is also co-funding the establishment of the UWI Lion’s Resource Centre For Students with Disabilities. In addition, the foundation has also financed the rehabilitation of educational institutions affected by Hurricane Ivan through a J$200 million donation to the National Recovery Effort.

Underscoring the fact that Digicel’s involvement with tertiary educational institutions is part of the company’s work ethic, David Hall, Digicel’s CEO, also called for a closer liaison between the commercial interests and academia, as a recipe for stimulating increased productivity and socio-economic improvements in Jamaica.

“The commercial sector cannot afford to divorce itself from the academic laboratories and classrooms where inventions are taking place,” Hall cautioned during a recent presentation to the staff and students at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Technology.

“It is by a closer liaison between universities and the commercial sector that increased productivity and new improvements will be realised,” he remarked.

He also urged the private and public sectors to plough more resources into developing the island’s human capital through an improved education system.

The Digicel CEO said additional investments in education and training would enable the country to reap better social and economic rewards. Added Hall: “For any company or country to achieve and remain successful, there must be a marriage between the implementation of state-of-the-art technology and workforce training and development…We at Digicel have wholeheartedly embraced this philosophy.”