HELP WANTED!
IT IS becoming more apparent that some of the skills adjustments required to achieve Jamaica’s growth goals are yet to be tackled. Indeed, it’s an issue that has not received the requisite national attention.
Yes, there has been a great debate about the departure of trained and specialist nurses from many of the island’s healthcare facilities, followed by calls for creative strategy to retain these professionals. The minister of health is apparently looking beyond the typical approaches to resolve these issues.
Today, however, we are indebted to letter writer Howard Chin, who is affiliated to the American Welding Society, for raising the matter of the worldwide shortage of welders, which is estimated to reach 300,000 by 2020. He was critical of the lack of a local plan to train welders for an expanding aluminium industry and wondered whether we will be looking to China to fill the void.
Sadly, this shortage also applies to other sectors, including home repair and maintenance. The labour pool does not have sufficient skilled plumbers, tilers, air-condition and refrigeration technicians, electricians, masons and carpenters to satisfy demand.
What does a welder shortage mean for the economy? As in any other field, a shortage of skilled workers weighs down a company, hinders growth, and causes a slowing down of economic expansion. If the workers are not available, dependence on a few will mean less productivity and could lead to fatigue and discontent. When there are no suitable workers, you either have to import workers or import the products that the workers would have produced.
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) reported that the Jamaican labour force stood at 1.34 million in the last quarter of 2017. STATIN said the industry group identified as “wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicle and equipment” showed the greatest growth in jobs. Employment in that area increased by 3.3 per cent, moving from 238,800 in January 2017 to 246,700 in January 2018. This was identified as the largest sector of the economy, contributing 17.3 per cent to GDP.
Several skilled jobs were also identified in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, energy and mining. With more than 500 companies listed in the construction sector, STATIN pointed to several skilled job opportunities available in this sector, including painters, drywall installers and landscape architects.
EMPHASIS ON APPRENTICESHIP
One way of closing this skill gap is for professional associations to develop and expand training and certification programmes through emphasis on apprenticeship. Not only should there be renewed focus on apprenticeship, we submit that any such programme should include more industries, such as healthcare, cybersecurity and information technology.
In order to have an effective apprenticeship programme, the private sector will definitely need to build alliances with educational institutions so that, together, they can identify current and forecast future skill gaps across industries.
The term ‘upskilling’ is used to describe the new global focus on training current employees in order to satisfy demand.
Even though unemployment is trending downwards in Jamaica, some of the people who are job-hunting are having a hard time securing work in their field. And this includes graduates of tertiary institutions. This exposes a deficiency in training and points to the need for greater alignment of education to employment needs. The solution to the problem is, therefore, a long-term one, such as pointing teenagers to the hot jobs that exist now and which are likely to be around in the foreseeable future.
We end by repeating Howard Chin’s question: “So, what are we going to do about it?”