OPPOSITION spokesman on labour and social security, Pearnel Charles, says that there is need for closer collaboration between the ministries of education and labour and social security in training young Jamaicans to provide the skills that are needed in Jamaica today.

Speaking in the sectoral debate in the House of Representatives last night, Charles said that even with a struggling economy, there are jobs that cannot be filled, because persons with the required skills cannot be found.

“When a factory has to shut down a production line because of a problem that could be fixed in a matter of hours, but has to wait several days because the few people that can fix it are busy with other jobs, valuable time and output is lost and the productivity of the workers on that production line suffers,” Charles said.

“The Ministry of Labour has the capability to identify these skills that are in short supply. It must also take a proactive stance. In collaboration with the private sector, especially the Jamaica Employers Federation, and the PIOJ, it must identify the skills that the economy will require in the medium and long term to support new, existing and expanded investments across all sectors,” he stated.

“The Ministry of Labour must be virtually twinned with the Ministry of Education to determine how our schools, vocational and other specialised institutions and training programmes can be mobilised and managed to produce these skills,” he said.

“We bemoan the poor achievement levels of most of our school leavers. We would love to see every one of them graduating summa cum laude, but that is not possible, and we are not likely to get even near there in the future. What we can do is to ensure that we have enough ‘summa cum laudes’ to provide the necessary skills for industry to facilitate investment and growth,” he said.

He suggested that the Government initiate a programme to identify students at grade eleven, and even those who have already left school, who display the aptitude and/or have achieved academic levels that make them good, trainable candidates for these jobs.

“Let us channel these selectees into specific training programmes – HEART/NTA, VTDI, community colleges, etcetera — let us sit down with the private sector, and develop a new apprenticeship programme under which some of these selectees can be trained on the job, at the workplace leading to certification,” he offered.

He admitted, however, that there would be a challenge finding the necessary resources to fund the programme, as the budget of the Ministry of Education is already stretched and the minister is hardly likely to entertain any suggestion for reallocating any of those resources.

“I want to suggest, for discussion if possible, to fund this programme through the National Insurance Fund (NIF) in a way that meets the needs and objectives of the programme while providing a return to the fund as part of its investment portfolio,” he said.

He pointed to Labour Minister Derrick Kellier’s reference, in his sectoral presentation, to loan funding arrangements which the NIF has been pursuing, by providing funds for small and medium enterprises through the Development Bank of Jamaica.

“What I am proposing is a similar concept to provide new opportunities for our young people and boost the quality of our labour force,” Charles explained.