Building Bridges between Educators in Small and Island States, Commonwealth of Learning, Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth, Fourth International Training and Course Development Workshop, Apia, Samoa, 12 November 2007, Opening Remarks Paul West and Sir John Daniel // This is the fourth of these events; previous workshops have been held in Mauritius, Singapore, and Trinidad & Tobago. Your team leaders visited Vancouver a month ago for an intensive few days of preparation and will now help you get started over the next day or so. While you are here and when you return home in a few weeks, I invite you to make contact with colleagues who have participated in previous workshops. It is important that 'VUSSC workshop alumni' in each of your countries now begin to collaborate and train more colleagues. These workshops will come to an end in a few years and your Ministries of Education expect that you and your institutions will have built the expertise needed to continue this process without external intervention.