Do you own a small enterprise? Are you seeking new ideas and tactics to improve and grow your business? With this ever changing technology, it is very important to keep up-to-date with emerging technologies. Many business entities are sometimes “left in the dark” due to failure of seizing new business opportunities or capitalizing on market trends in the corporate world.  The Morris Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) is just that ideal institution you are seeking. What is the aim and mission of the MEC? What kind of services do they provide?

The Morris Entrepreneurship Centre aims to be the first choice for business education and training for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME’s) across central Jamaica. Its mission is to provide information, advice, business education and training to MSMEs within central Jamaica, enabling them to access finance and build sustainable profitable business operation, to gain competitive advantage locally, regionally and internationally.

Some proud graduates of one of the MEC's programme pose with their certificates 

The Morris Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) is an outreach unit of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and is specifically designed to assist the business community in central Jamaica. Established in 2006 as a non-profit organization, the Centre’s primary focus is to provide business development services for micro, small and medium sized (MSMEs) enterprises. Its aim is to equip business persons with the management tools and techniques necessary to build capacity, enhance competitiveness and expand their businesses through education and training. The MEC opens the opportunity for the MSME’s to (a) access professional business services at an affordable cost, (b) access grants and loans conducive to their relevant businesses, and (c) access training for business persons and their staff at an affordable cost.

The Centre is led by an Executive Director; Hazel Wright-O’Connor and she is supported by three (3) full-time staff. The Top Management comprises of NCU’s Vice President of University Relations who reports directly to the President of NCU. The activities of the MEC are guided by a twelve-member Board of Management which consists of individuals who are drawn from the Manchester business community and officials of the University. MEC has at its disposal the experience of the NCU’s faculty and staff, as well as the institution’s “technical know-how” that results from its many years as a university, offering training in Business Management including entrepreneurship.

The Centre offers a variety courses which guarantees to propel your business. These include:

Business Education and Training, and Business Clinics, in which information and advice on an array of business issues and concerns including financial management, human resource management, accounts and taxation are provided. Some other services provided consist of: Business mentoring and consultation, Proposal writing for procuring seed money and loans, Writing of Business and Marketing Plan, Seminars and Workshops, and Market Research.

In addition, the entity provides Business Diagnostic Services for enterprises that are experiencing challenges or who wish to increase profitability and sustainability. The MEC also offers business registration services on behalf of the Companies Office of Jamaica. Since the inception of the Morris Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC), the Unit has partnered with:

The Manchester Chamber of Commerce (MCOC) to offer a National Commercial Bank (NCB) sponsored entrepreneurial training programme dubbed ‘Operation Entrepreneurism.’ This programme originated on June 25, 2007 with the MCOC partnering with the Centre to provide business and financial skills to 500 individuals in the central region of the island. These individuals were trained in groups of 50’s over a one year period, ending July 2008.

The Jamaica Development Corporation (JBDC) in May 2008 for the establishment of a branch of the Jamaica Business Information Centre (JAMBIC) to operate at the Morris Entrepreneurship Centre. The integration of the JAMBIC office into the MEC has provided the opportunity for the MSMEs to receive assistance through the network of Export Centre Business Information Points (ECBIP).

The MEC also partnered with the Social Development Committee (SDC) for Inner City Services Project. MEC conducted training session with eight (8) communities in Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine and St. James. The communities were Flankers in St. James, Central Village, March Pen, Demsha Pen, Lauristan and in St. Catherine, Craig Town and Jones Town in St. Andrew and Kingston. Below is a summary of the project result. The objective was to improve the knowledge base of participants to enable them to apply the “best practice” approaches in community operations. Each participant received training in Teamwork, Leadership, Management, Planning, Financial Management, Community Networking and Sustainable Developmental Planning.

The MEC and the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) have also undertaken intervention programmes to prepare the farming groups in Manchester to access the JSIF funding Project 2010 by way of grant proposal writing seminars.

Collaboration with the HEART Trust/NTA to offer Level 3 NVQ- J programmes with a view of attaining accreditation status. These courses included Diploma Certificates in Business Accounting, Business Management, Retail Management (Supervision) Retail Selling and Merchandizing.

Jamaica Broilers and this entity have undertaken training with “Poultry Farmers” in Manchester aimed at strengthening the capacity of the farmers and adapting “best practice” approaches within the industry. To date a total of sixty (60) poultry farmers have been trained through this initiative.

For more information, please contact 1 (876) 963-7084.