 Sections of St. Lucia's workforce displaced by effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may soon have a new avenue to reroute themselves to alternative in-demand careers. That's why the Lewis Community College is preparing a suite of tailored short-term courses that will provide material prospects with new marketable skills. Principal Dr. Keith Nurse says this new venture will be added to a list of other similar offerings and other colleges' ongoing lifelong learning program and a TVET. What we want to do for those people who are probably displaced particularly in the tourism sector and some of the retail and other sectors is to curate a process whereby we offer them certificates in a very packaged way. So we have in mind training for example for the blue economy. So what skills do you need to have for the blue economy? And so we start with an understanding of what the marketplace requires and then we build out those skills in four to five very well packaged training components. Dr. Nurse adds that the certification obtained will carry credits transferable to future degree programs. So you get a certificate in fact you would get what we call a digital certificate and in fact it would be a nano degree. Now that nano degree is transferable so that you can then use that as a basis to come back to the college if you want to now go on to do your associate degree or your bachelor's degree. This and other recent initiatives of the college are consistent with a thrust toward educational innovation. In this vein the college will be hosting a thought festival dubbed and think on 15th June the 30th anniversary of the passing of Sir Arthur Lewis. The virtual event is aimed at propagating new thinking idea creation and strategic action on the globalization and development agenda. We felt it was really important to pull together a stellar cast of academics, intellectuals, thought leaders, business people from around the world. So it's a one day event and we're calling it a thought festival because the objective is not to be, this is not a webinar, this is not a Zoom session, we're running it in studio at HTS and we are making it very accessible to anyone and everyone from all parts of the world. The inaugural event being held in honor of the life and legacy of Sir Arthur Lewis will have his work woven into the program of keynote addresses and panels that focus on areas including green and blue sustainable development as a solution for climate action, development of healthy equity beyond COVID-19, digital education and industrial upgrading.