PM says Bajans must improve skills to get available jobs

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has appealed to Barbadians to utilise the free opportunities offered by her administration to acquire the skills needed to take up jobs in construction and other areas that are becoming available.

She made the appeal after a community activist called on her to intervene in a situation in Porey Spring, St Thomas where authorities had blocked some young men from engaging in a constructive venture.

Speaking at the St Thomas Speaks town hall meeting at the Lester Vaughan School on Tuesday, Mottley lamented that the country has a shortage of tradesmen and implored residents to take advantage of the Barbados Construction Gateway Training Initiative and other programmes offered at the island’s technical institutions.

“I am almost begging Bajans, get the skills. Years ago, you used to have to pay to go and learn a trade. People paid to go to university, people paid to go to all kinds of things.

“Let us use the opportunity this Government has given you; not just the courses at the institutions but we also offer 15 000 courses free online at Coursera. Tell me how many other countries give their citizens all of that free training?” Mottley said.

During the forum, Patsy Nurse asked Mottley to visit Porey Spring where she said “guys on the block” have been working to develop an environmental space.

The community activist complained that Town and Country Planning had stopped them from building a structure at the location and appealed to the Prime Minister to not only intervene in the matter but to consider making a parcel of land available for residents to use as an economic space.

“We have a lot of people that do craft, cooking, all sorts of things, and we need to help these people to get money. Some people in St Thomas are not working and we need to help them,” Nurse said.

In response, Mottley said that while job openings, particularly in the construction industry, were opening up, “if we are not careful, we are going to have a mismatch between the need for jobs and the lack of skilled artisans to do the jobs”.

“So, I want to use this opportunity and I want you to help me encourage people to get into the Construction Gateway programme. If you don’t give people a reason to hire you, you are depending on their mercy and I want young people to recognise that it is up to each person to give the people around them a reason, and that is why your parents and grandparents will tell you about getting a skill.

“It ain’t only about certificates. In fact, the people who have certificates don’t make as much as the people who got skills now.

We need to get people back into productive employment,” she contended.

The Prime Minister also alluded to the fact that there is a need for dialogue between hotels, hospitality workers, and owners of capital to discuss how the issue of people leaving the sector can be rectified.

“With that, there will be the need for the entrepreneurs like the fellas at Porey Spring and Spring Farm,” Mottley said.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb