Government preparing workers for more opportunities in construction sector

Government is facilitating the training of more than 1 500 people for critical roles in the ongoing construction boom, says Minister of Housing Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland.

He said the workers were from the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources and are part of the plan to facilitate the building of 10 000 houses promised by Government.

He made the disclosure while giving remarks at a handing over ceremony in Farmers, St Thomas on Wednesday.

Sutherland said there were claims being made by some business people that there was a shortage of workers for the construction industry.

“What this government has done in this term of office is we started what we call the Construction Gateway Initiative where we have identified those persons that we brought on, some of the ash workers. Most of them are at the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources – over 1 400 workers – and we are training these workers giving them the necessary skills,” he said.

“Some are going into landscaping, some are going into plumbing, some are going into tiling, some are going into trowel plastering, some are going into roof work and some are going into steel bending. We are using three institutions – the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPIT), the Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB) and the Barbados Community College (BCC) – to give these workers the skills so that they can help in the building out of these 10 000 houses in this country.”

Sutherland added that there were 459 general workers at NHC and more than half of them were also being trained.

“I am proud to report that we have started the training under the Construction Gateway Initiative. Two hundred and fifty-three of these workers are enrolled at BCC, SJPIT or BVTB where they are being given the opportunity to develop a skill as a builder, as an artisan. When they are finished, 200 of them will go into working on the East/West joint partnership with NHC or the HOPE project, which is the Dura Villa hardwood houses.

“There are 120 workers waiting to be enrolled in the second phase. So in the end 253 plus 120 is 373 of the 450 workers that will have the skills whereby the private sector can utilise them. Government will be utilising them and the joint venture partnerships between NHC and builders in this country will be using them to build out our housing stock.”

He said that workers were also conducting studies in supervisory management, adding that this training programme was the first of its kind in Barbados. (SZB)