As our vibrant tech community grows, we are cognizant of the fact there is a global shortage of coders, and even digital marketers, so we are working hard behind the scenes with various stakeholders to develop a talented tech-focused workforce right here in Cayman.
Enterprise Cayman is a partnership between Cayman Enterprise City and the Cayman Islands Government, developed to create opportunities for Caymanians within the Special Economic Zone. One of our initiatives is the Schools’ Outreach Programme, where we work with Government and the private sector. We work with the Ministry of Education and local schools and colleges, and take CEC community members who volunteer their time to talk to students about careers in STEM. Because financial services and tourism are Cayman’s main economic pillars, traditionally Caymanian students have followed career paths into law, accounting, banking or tourism, but with now with so many tech savvy youngers, we are encouraging them to consider tech-focused education and careers.
Cayman has very talented, creative youngsters, some of whom have developed their own Apps, or websites or set up coding groups at school to work on innovative projects and games. Some have developed their own YouTube channels and taught themselves video editing, and others excel in social media and digital marketing. As part of our Schools’ Outreach Programme, CEC community members talk to students about the types of tech careers that are starting to be created in CEC, then share their personal educational and career stories, inspiring them to think about a career in technology.
Scottish Millennial Amy Hayward knows a thing or two about social media and inbound marketing! She recently moved to Cayman to join zone company Meticulosity SEZC as a Senior Inbound Marketing Specialist and is already actively volunteering her time to our Schools’ Programme. She’s proven to be the perfect ambassador - not only are her credentials impeccable but the students love her stimulating talks and think her purple hair is very cool!
Following her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her MRes Psychology from the University of Aberdeen, she took a job as the Social Media Marketing Manager at the University, marketing to commercial and institutional KPIs while engaging with the digital community in a manner that achieved high impact while also running recruitment cycle marketing campaigns.
She then joined the Aberdeen Science Centre as their Marketing Manager. Established in 1989, Aberdeen Science Centre is a pioneer of interactive science discovery in Scotland. Their dynamic team develops interactive programmes transporting visitors, of all ages and backgrounds, to the heart of discovery. Then after a stint heading up public engagement at the prestigious St. Andrew’s University (the choice of HRH Prince William), Amy spread her wings and headed to Cayman and will be heading to Cayman Brac in January to talk to the students at the Layman Scott High School and hopefully she will get to tag on some diving and snorkeling while there!
“I was delighted to be able to represent CEC and various STEM opportunities available during my talk at Cayman Prep as part of the youth programme. I’ve always been interesting in helping people see how incredibly important STEM skills can be. The students had fantastic questions for me, and were incredibly engaged. It was inspiring to meet such enthusiastic young people and to let them know how varied and interesting career paths can be if you follow your interests." said Amy.
Mark Hall from Spark SEZC and Ben Strangeway and George Black from Maples Technology SEZC have kindly volunteered their time over this past year helping at our Code Fellows Workshop and then facilitating a Cayman Enterprise City computer coding club. Club members have been meeting twice a month at the CEC HSBC Zone building and the volunteers who are all seasoned programming professionals, have helped club members learn how to code and work on projects collaboratively. We have some new exciting news regarding coding workshop opportunities coming soon, for people who want to learn how to code or improve their existing skills, so watch this space!
CEC is very grateful to all community members who have volunteered their time to our youth and schools’ initiatives and we’d like to give thanks to Amy Hayward, Dave Ward, Tanya Wigmore, Mark Hall, Michael Kader, Vidya Ravella, Ben Strangeway and George Blake.
We are building this community together and are making some substantial progress. If you would like to learn more about our programmes, or volunteer your time or the time of some of your employees, we would love to chat with you. You reach us at m.phillip@CaymanEnterpriseCity.com.