Kate Kandiah Remarks and ADDRESS – CCUK 4th Annual Reception 2017.
Address TBC depending on official guests in attendance.
- Her Excellency the Governor
- Honourable Premier
- Honourable Ministers
- Chief Officers
- Esteemed Guests
Welcome
Firstly my sincere Thanks to Her Excellency for hosting our 4th Annual CCUK reception here in Cayman. I can hardly believe it has been 4 years since we welcomed Her Excellency to our Launch Reception at the National Gallery.
I could talk for hours about CCUK, Caymanians in Europe, what we’ve done and what we are planning, however I am keen for you to continue chatting, networking and meeting each other as that is what this evening is all about. SO PLEASE come and talk to me, tonight OR after the reception – feel free to get in touch – contact information is on caymanconnection.org. hello@caymanconnection.org. I am also keen to hear your views, as many CCUK developments have happened through ideas from Students and Friends, so let us know what you think!
We offer this Annual Reception as an event for students to get together and share experiences, we hope that new students on their way to the UK can meet some of our seasoned UK students, to glean some advise and know-how! We also welcome the private sector who are offering scholarships to the UK, and value their support and advise. We welcome and are grateful for all our Government Members who have also taken an interest in CCUK and have supported the network since inception.
And so to talk about some of our main events this year:
Firstly, The London Office gained the new Cayman Islands Government Representative Mr Eric Bush last July, he and the London have supported CCUK wholeheartedly over the year.
The UK has seen a very interesting year that has affected the London Office and CCUK, and we have been working together to communicate our joint activity to the Cayman Diaspora in the UK.
Members of CCUK already receive a quarterly newsletter and and hoc newsletters when there are events of note. These are sent out to all who have registered on the CCUK website as either a FRIEND or a STUDENT.
If you have graduated we can transfer your registration to FRIEND, so we will still communicate with you.
We try to extend communications to those who have been involved in our events but may have not actually registered online however I URGE students and anyone who wants to receive invitations to events, news and updates from us to register online – the process is simple – caymanconnection.org – STUDENT REGISTER or FRIENDS REGISTER. PLEASE REGISTER WITH US.
We are excited to be working with the London Office on Government Specific news, an annual Government London Office briefing is due to be released this month and monthly newsletters thereafter.
News this year has been centered around both Cayman and UK Elections and Brexit, and, unfortunately also the sad terriorist events that have taken place.
These are all relevant for Caymanians in the UK. For the Cayman elections we sent out as much information about the elections and candidates to encourage Caymanians in the UK to get involved, even if they weren’t at home, we urged students to be sure their postal votes were in on time and tried to keep everyone up to date with the progress and news from the elections.
For the UK elections, well, no one really expected an outcome of a hung parliament, and again we tried to keep our Caymanian Diaspora informed along the way – to get us all thinking about how any of these movements affect Caymanians abroad or at home. As with the complex issue of Brexit, what does this mean for Cayman? We aim to inform our members the steps that Cayman Islands Government are taking to ensure that Cayman’s voice is heard in the Brexit negotiations in the UK.
Communications with our students and Friends has never been so relevant as in recent months following terrorist attacks in the UK, I am sad to say.
I recall when launching CCUK, working on how important communications were for Caymanians in the UK in the event of a disaster at home, remembering the role of the London Office during Ivan and knowing how important it is to have a good network of volunteers in the UK. However, I had not fully acknowledged or appreciated the importance of communications at the time of a disaster in the UK. Following recent events including the Westminster attack, Manchester bombing and London Bridge incident, we are working with the London Office, and they with Her Majesties Government ensure we have solid plans in place for Caymanians who may be affected by adverse events in the UK, and CCUK stands ready to assist. This is another reason we urge you please do register so we can help you, and reach out to you if necessary in the time of a crisis.
But, it is certainly not all doom and gloom, a number of social and networking events have been held in the UK since our last reception.
The annual students reception at the Government office was a blast as always with over 50 students coming together to celebrate the Christmas holidays. The London Office also hosted a Friends reception in November welcoming Friends to the new offices in Dover Street Mayfair. A limited number of students were offered VIP invitations to several a private members events, allowing them access to networks and people that they ordinarily may not be able to meet.
We held our second Cayman-style quiz in June, which was great fun, a gathering of Caymanians in the UK for dinner, a quiz, drinks and fun…. What’s not to like about that?!
New connections we have made this year include more involvement with the Scholarship Directory here in Cayman. Yello Media Group launched the Cayman Scholarships and Recipients Directory series three years ago. Both annual directories along with the website: caymanscholarships.com have become a go-to, for students and parents. The Cayman Scholarships Directory publishes every March, highlighting all of the scholarships available in Cayman offered by the public and private sectors. It’s an excellent comprehensive resource for scholarships.
The Recipients Directory publishes every September, showcasing all of the lucky students who have been awarded grants. How inspiring for young people to read about their successful peers, understand why they were selected for the scholarship and what it took to be that dazzling star amongst all other applications. It’s a powerful testament to the local companies who are investing in our youth and one that we encourage students to look at, as I am sure many high school students have no idea just how many opportunities they have to potentially study abroad. Since launching the publications, more students are seeking out and applying for scholarships, which is wonderful.
One of the main areas of assistance that has been given to students this year relates to the issue of HOME FEES, One of the huge benefits of tertiary education in the UK for Cayman students is that as British Oversees Territories Citizens, Cayman students are entitled to HOME fees and not international fees. HOWEVER, some of the universities in the UK are not used to this and we, and the London Office are often having to intervene to ensure our students are not paying exorbitant international fees. If you have any questions or concerns about this please do get in touch. Hello@caymanconnection.org.
Our Friends Mentors programme is growing, whereby Government and private sector Friends in the UK offer a skill or their time to Cayman students in the UK. We welcome more offers of support, from interview skills, team building, CV fine-tuning, or specialist areas, such as sport, hospitality, media. Please do get in touch if you feel you have something to offer our students in the UK.
On sponsorship, we thank all those who have been involved over the years, sponsoring ad hoc events and student programmes. Without the support of the Cayman Islands Government and the private sector we couldn’t run this network so we are truly grateful.
Mourant Ozannes have been fundamental in supporting CCUK since inception, and has always assisted with the CCUK Annual reception, so thank you. We welcome support for student courses, networking events and programmes and will be working on fundraising starting September. There are several ways to help with sponsorship so please do come and speak to me about the opportunities.
One example is we have this year launched a CCUK online shop (on the CCUK website) for Cayman products to be sold in the UK… this is following many requests about where to buy Cayman Products in the UK and people asking for Cayman style hampers for gifts and incentives, we decided to give it a go.. it is early days we sell Cayman Sea Salt, Rumcake, Cayman greetings cards and various Cayman goodies. The shop is not-for-profit and 100% of proceeds go towards student projects and events for students in the UK. We do need some help with this so if you are interested in sponsoring the first ever Cayman product shop in the UK please get in touch!
You will have seen our first Annual Review, our second review will be published in September with a wide distribution throughout Cayman and in UK offices and universities, if you are interested in sponsorship for this please let me know. Likewise if you have some news you would like to feature please let us know.
CCUK is enhanced by student involvement, and we need a great team of Cayman Student Ambassadors, (CSAs) to move things forward with enthusiasm, and whilst this is a volunteer role, there are many great benefits to becoming involved, not least the first refusal on VIP events, references from top level private sector and Cayman Islands Government, and incentives such as dinners, Cayman goodies and…..wait for it ….we are working on also offering flights back home to our key lead ambassadors. To get involved please fill out the CSA application form which can be found on the website – or if you have any specific questions please feel free to get in touch. kate@caymanconnection.org – our new team of ambassadors will be announced in September and our first meeting will happen at the beginning of October.
This coming year we will also be launching our CCUK CHAMPION programme, we will be asking for nominations for our CCUK Champion, this is someone who has excelled in the UK, either personally, professionally or at university. Please get your thinking caps on and let us know who you would nominate. We will be sending out more information on this in the Autumn.
Lastly we are planning a UK CUKTURE SHOCK WORKSHOP on Thursday next week from 6-8, this is for new students heading to the UK who would like some more information. We will be providing an introduction to topics such as cultural differences, etiquette in the UK, UK politics and also a top-line introduction to Cayman politics and finance, to assist new students traveling to the UK with information on basic topics that they will be asked about by their peers.
For more information and to sign up to attend please go to our website or email hello@caymanconnection.org .
On that note I would just like to ask students who are already studying in the UK to raise their hand…. So….. new students can look around, see who it is you can talk to – go and meet and mingle and we look forward to seeing you in the UK for the new academic year!
Please do keep in touch, watch our Facebook page, website and newsletters for information and let me know if you have any thoughts, comments or ideas… we are all ears!!
Many thanks once again, enjoy your evening.