Alta Online ready for export thanks to EU

May 9 is Europe Day and Alta joins with all countries of the European Union to celebrate the European project and its achievements of unity and long-term peace.

A media release said, the EU has not limited itself to the continent but has a world view and has been funding and fostering development in TT.

It’s Shaping the Future of Innovation project, in partnership with the TT government and IDB LAB, has awarded grants totalling eight million euros to a wide range of local enterprises.

In August 2023, Alta was the recipient of an Innovation Challenge Award as part of the Shaping the Future of Innovation project. Alta recently presented the impact of the award to Peter Cavendish, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Delegation of the European Union.

The award was to enhance Alta Online which is an interactive, web-based programme of literacy instruction built around Caribbean life skills content and designed for independent use by persons aged nine and over, the release said.

Paula Lucie-Smith, Alta founder, outlined how the grant has enhanced Alta Online. “Alta Online now has a built-in helpdesk. Non-readers have unique needs. Literacy students can’t type to ‘chat’ online and they need a simple interface with no text on screen, so we had to create a helpdesk very different to the usual typed question and answer format. To get general guidance on how an activity works, students can now see a video of someone going through a similar activity. If the student is still having difficulty, they click on the helpdesk icon and a report of the problem is sent to the Alta User Support Team. These reports help Alta to pinpoint students who need intervention from their mentors or Alta User Support and also help with site maintenance.”

Tejumade Hendrickson, Alta operations manager, highlighted the impact of the grant on Alta Online capacity and reach. “Building our user support capacity is the other huge contribution made by the Innovation Challenge award. The award allowed us to expand user support from standard daylight working hours to now offer support from 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays and to add Saturday support from 9 am to 5 pm. So now, if a student is still stuck or confused after using the helpdesk, they just make a free WhatsApp call and talk to Kimlyn, Sachen or Roseann.”

With regard to reach, Hendrickson added, “With the growing demand for a flexible and comprehensive literacy programme like Alta Online, the grant enabled Alta to hire two Alta Online field officers to meet with agencies, including schools and business places. The number of schools using Alta Online more than doubled since the field officers have been on board. Eighteen of the schools (both primary and secondary) benefiting from this programme are designated by the Ministry of Education as Schools of Focus due to the high percentage of students who have scored below 30 per cent in the Secondary Entrance Assessment.”

Alta’s team received congratulations and many words of encouragement for its work from Cavendish. Also present were Denise Ferguson from the executing agency Cariri and project manager of the Innovation Challenge Facility Marie Louise Norton-Murray, the release said.

Norton-Murray praised Alta saying, “Alta needs to be recognised for their excellent work and results to date. The grant has really assisted them to grow significantly. While this project did not fall under our inclusive category, the results show the impact on vulnerable communities. The helpdesk has closed the marketability gaps for Alta Online and they have grown in terms of the number of persons taking literacy classes from 700 students at the start of the project in August 2023 to 6,154 students in March 2025. Alta Online is now ready to be exported.”

Alta, in the release, thanked the EU and its partners the TT Government and the IDB, for the Shaping the Future of Innovation award.

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