The Grenada leg of an Advance Negotiations course will be officially launch on Wednesday June 6, at the Red Cross Conference Room. The programme, which is an initiative of the United National Development Program (UNDP) and partners, will involve one hundred Grenadians in an online eight-week training facilitated by the Virtual Development Academy (VDA) World Campus initiative with the launch of the Harvard/CBI. However, the 100 participants will be divided into two groups of 50 for the training. The second group is expected to begin training in September. Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell will deliver the feature address at Wednesday’s opening. The Grenada launch of the Advanced Negotiations Course builds on the success of the Virtual Development Academy (VDA) world campus program which was started in St. Lucia last year, and trained 80 people. UNDP said that with the challenges posed by globalization there is increasing need to provide innovative educational opportunities for public service professionals with the region. According to UNDP it will ensure that professional standards of service are consistent with international standards. The rollout of the program to Grenada will ensure that a critical number of people in the sub-region will receive training in the area. The online training is geared to equip public and private officials who engage in negotiations with the skills and knowledge to achieve their professional objectives. Participants enrolled in the program will be provided with the skills in negotiation and consensus building which can be applied to all areas of professional work. These include development and implementation of projects and programmes in partnership with international and governmental stakeholders and participation in regional and global processes and forums dealing with relevant issues. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com