Clean-up workers begin skills training transition

The almost 2 000 national clean-up workers whose contracts will expire at the end of March have started the skills training transition promised by Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw last week.

A joint statement issued by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources along with the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance on Tuesday said the 1,915 temporary workers from the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources and the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance were introduced to the programme which the Government said is a first for Barbados.

More than 75 per cent of the workers from both ministries have already signed up to enter the skills training programme to participate in their choice of over 25 courses at various tertiary institutions.

The institutions include the Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB), the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI), and the Barbados Community College (BCC).  

Discussions are also underway with construction companies and other private sector entities.

The clean-up workers were first contracted in April 2021 after the ashfall from the erupting La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines blanketed the island. That initiative, which cost the Government approximately $54 million per year, will come to an end on March 31, 2023.

In making that announcement, Bradshaw, who is also Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, assured the workers that a first-of-its-kind skills training transition programme would be extended to them.

The goal of the programme is to provide better opportunities for the workers to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to become more self-sufficient and employable, which will allow them to be in a better position to sell their skills back to the Government and the private sector.  

Haigh Communications has been engaged to assist with the transition programme and will work closely with workers and public and private sector agencies to effect a smooth transition from training to taking up opportunities that become available. (PR/BT)