Jordan: Barbados could be hub for aviation job training

Barbados is in prime position to become a regional training hub for workers in the aviation industry, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan suggested on Tuesday.

Speaking in the House of Assembly during debate on the Civil Aviation Bill 2022, he said that as authorities seek to upgrade the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) to Category 1 status, there were opportunities to offer training for air traffic controllers and other vital technical jobs in the sector.

“As we move to become Tier 1, Category 1, we do it through improving not just systems, improving not just facilities, but also improving the skills of our people, and there is absolutely no reason why the country that in my father’s era and in my mother’s era trained teachers for the Caribbean . . . cannot be training air traffic controllers for the Caribbean,” Jordan said.

“We are an educational hub, and this is an area – a very technical area, an expert area – that other countries will benefit from.”

Jordan insisted that as the region continues to grow in the areas of innovation and trade, Barbados could provide training and resources in areas other than the usual hospitality-based jobs.

The Labour Minister said Barbadians should also position themselves to take full advantage of the expanding job market.

“We really have to look at all of the spin-offs that come from Barbados paying the attention that it ought to place on this matter of aviation.

“We have lots of people in our country who we consider to be highly educated. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason why many of our engineering graduates or computer science graduates, or Sci Tech graduates from the [University of the West Indies] campus at Cave Hill should not be moving into aircraft engineering, and the more aircraft that we are able to attract the more job opportunities there are for persons in this country,” Jordan added. (SB)