The Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) will be expanding its curricula and programme options with its engineering department, to be launched soon.

The $500-million facility, to be named FESTO Didactic Centre, will offer training in the field of industrial automation and mechatronics.

Executive Director at CMI Dr Fritz Pinnock said the world-class centre will focus on areas such as robotics engineering, hydraulics and pneumatics.

The centre will be implemented in partnership with German company FESTO Didactic, a world leader in industrial automation technology training.

It will produce certified technicians needed for the maintenance and operation of ports to meet not just the demand in Jamaica, but also regional and international demand.

“It is about transforming engineering across the sphere. We will be doing research in engineering with medicine and looking at bionics,” Dr Pinnock outlined, adding that the whole idea is to bridge the gap and make use of opportunities that these areas may create.

“Opportunities exist under that fourth industrial revolution, which is the integration of the digital, the physical and the biological space…so it is about producing people for that reality,” he added.

The executive director pointed out that CMI will also be expanding its security management courses and programmes with the launch of the cybersecurity and global supply chain security programmes.

“We want to reach every corner of the globe; in other words, rather than seeing our people leaving to go overseas to study, we want to see many more people coming here to study,” Dr Pinnock said.

He noted that CMI is working with international groups and leading industry groups in order to integrate its programmes.

“All of our degree programmes are underpinned by professional bodies worldwide, and that we will continue to do. We cannot have a single-type tertiary-education system, as it is about niche markets, collaborating with other institutions, greater integration, and people moving across the tertiary-education sector and developing skills and competence along the way that they can utilise,” the executive director explained.

The CMI aims to secure sustainable growth and development for the institution and Jamaica. In order to achieve this, the institute will focus on the expansion of physical facilities, increased accommodation, securing additional funds to maximise the use of technology to expand into other Caribbean territories to attract and retain highly qualified technical and academic staff.

It also anticipates gaining university status in the near future.