Commonwealth of Learning (COL) – Skills Online for Work Udemy Scholarship

The Commonwealth of Learning in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, invites eligible Barbadian citizens to apply for the COL Udemy Skills Online for Work Udemy initiative. The aim of the scholarship is to close the skills gap for in-demand and high-demand jobs in fifteen, participating Commonwealth Nations. COL aims to support the efforts of Member States to disseminate skills required for decent employment and entrepreneurship, and pave the way for skilling, reskilling, upskilling, retooling and lifelong learning.

Skills Online for Work Approach

Through models that apply distance learning techniques, the Skills Online for Work approach helps adults, young persons, persons with disabilities, self-employed persons, entrepreneurs, unemployed, underemployed to acquire 21^st Century, life and essential skills.

Eligibility Criteria/ Target Learners

• Persons who are interested in gaining new skills to enter or traverse the labour market
• Persons who are unemployed and wish to gain skills to start a micro-enterprise OR to secure a job
• Persons with disabilities
• Persons who may have had their income reduced due to the effects of Covid-19
• Persons who did not participate in the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) – Coursera Workforce Recovery Programme

 Timeline and Number of Scholarships for 2021

• Cohort 1 – 150 Scholarships from 1^st April – 30^th September 2021 (6 months)
• Cohort 2 – 150 Scholarships from 1^st October 2021 – 31^st March 2022 (6 months)

Deadline for application submission

• Cohort 1 – 22^nd March 2021
• Cohort 2 – 20^th September 2021

Scholarship Rules

• Once you submit your application, a selection committee from the Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations will compile short-list eligible learners
• The shortlisted learner has to respond to the invitation email to sign up via the Udemy portal within two (2) days
• The learner has to enroll in a course or more, within one week of signing up via the portal
• The learner has to show enough progress (the minimum weekly study hours) in their course selection(s)
• The learner has to complete at least one (1) course within four weeks (April 30^th for Cohort 1 and October 31^st for Cohort 2) of the commencement of the scholarship
• The scholarship will be withdrawn if any learner is not able to demonstrate enough commitment and willingness to take advantage of this initiative, and the COL and the MLSP reserve the right to not consider such learners for any future scholarship programmes.

Please contact Mr. Randy Clarke at 535-1450 or [email protected] if you have any queries.

Registration form can be found here.