BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 31, 2009 - “One of my main priorities is to seek out as many educational and training opportunities for the young people of our beloved country, education is the key to liberating the human spirit, as well as providing opportunities for the poor to climb the socio-economic ladder”, so says Grenada’s Ambassador to the European Union, Stephen Fletcher. On Tuesday 31st, Ambassador Fletcher, met with Dr. John Fred Kakule, Education Expert at the Secretariat of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries, to explore the possible training opportunities for young Grenadians. Ambassador Fletcher was apprised on the various educational and training programmes, which students or persons who are desirous of improving their academic and technical skills can benefit. Among the key programmes are: 1. EDULINK. This programme funds cooperative projects between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the ACP Group of States and the 15 EU Member States that are signatories to the 9th European Development Fund (EDF). 2. The ACP Science and Technology Pro¬gramme. This is an ACP-EU co-operation pro¬gramme launched in June 2008. Open to all 79 member states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), the 3 EU candidate countries, and the 3 mem¬ber states of the European Free Trade Asso¬ciation (EFTA) that belong to the European Economic Area (EEA), it funds partnership projects to be selected through an open Call for Project Proposals. The overall objective of the ACP Science and Technology Programme is to support ACP coun¬tries in formulating and implementing science and technology (S&T) policies that can lead to sustainable development and to poverty reduc¬tion through economic growth and progressive integration in 3. The ERASMUS MUNDUS ACP Project. This programme seeks to facilitate linkages between the EU and ACP region in the field of higher education, thereby enabling ACP students to undertake postgraduate studies in Europe. This programme will allow the use of EDF funds to provide scholarships for students from the ACP region starting from the academic year 2010/11 until academic year 2014/2015 The ERASMUS MUNDUS Programme offers unique training opportunities relevant to the skilled manpower needs if the ACP Countries. Currently, there no immediate scholarships available from these ACP Programmes, however persons who are interested in obtaining further information on training opportunities from these programs are advised to access the relevant information from the ACP website, on www.acp.int/en/education Ambassador Fletcher thanked Dr. Kakule for the information provided and promise to maintain contact with him on the future training programs. From: Embassy of Grenada (Brussels Mission)