Thousands of jobs for youth, university graduates

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has outlined an ambitious five-year plan to slash youth unemployment in half and create more than 2,000 new jobs for graduates of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

However, Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley is already dismissing the initiative as an early attempt at amassing support for the country’s next general elections.

The plans, which are part of an initiative called Future Barbados, were shared during the naming ceremony of the UWI Cave Hill CARICOM Research Building in honour of late former Prime Minister Owen Arthur.

The plan also seeks to reduce carbon emissions, childhood obesity, and crime by 50 per cent, while providing opportunities for extensive foreign language studies all by the year 2026.

The Prime Minister declared: “My Government is about to take a proposal for something called the Future Barbados where we will look to work with the young people produced by this institution and other institutions in this country over the course of the next few years – but in particular with the first phase between now and March next year – to help us settle on some goals that we would like to have in 2026 within five years, that we want to earn with the Government of Barbados at least $100 million in value through either new revenue or cost savings.

“We want to reduce by at least 50 per cent, the prevalence of five major social problems as identified by ourselves, but consistent with the United Nations SDG [Sustainable Development Goals] framework.

“We would want that there be the creation of at least 2,000 new jobs against the context of this Future Barbados framework, not for the entire economy, but we will create jobs separate from this initiative. We will also use this opportunity to elevate Barbados to the top ten per cent ranking of the Youth Development Index, the SDG goals, and the Social Mobility Index, and that finally Barbados must be recognized as a hub for social innovation,” Mottley added.

Moments after her 40-minute speech, the Opposition Leader slammed the PM’s “highly distressing” comments and questioned the timing of the promises after more than three years in Government.

“In fact, it sounds to me like you are trying to set an electioneering platform. On top of that, sadly, you are offering hope to only half of the country’s unemployed youth. I have many times spoken about the 30-plus per cent unemployment in Barbados and lamented the plight of many graduates that are not employed and I think the Prime Minister is aware of that and that’s why we are here now,” Bishop Atherley told Barbados TODAY.

“We have a high level of unemployment and a higher level of unemployment among young people and we have the persisting scourge of underemployment in Barbados where people are being forced to work for less than is appropriate for their qualifications, energy and effort that they are putting in.

“You have graduates who come out with Masters degrees and can’t find work and after three years-plus, you are saying to us that over the next [five] years we are going to be mounting a programme to address that issue. I think that that is sad, distressing; really for me, it is disappointing. We need to stop playing games with people’s lives,” the Opposition Leader contended.

Prime Minister Mottley had revealed that the five areas of ‘future’ focus are intended to counteract five social ills plaguing the country while attempting to “capture the imagination of the nation” and restore a “commitment to task”.

“I have set out these five objectives within the context of Future Barbados and I have chosen to share it with you this morning ahead of going to Cabinet because, in a very real sense, the passion for this moment has come as a result of the bridge that I have walked upon that Owen Arthur and others have laid for us and I trust and pray that this future Barbados framework will be such a bridge… because you will be the generation that must take up from where we have left off to make sure that not just the opportunities, but the commitment to task and the pursuit of excellence shall be always there with you as you seek to solve the intransigent problems that are being placed before us,” she concluded. (kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)