SENIOR lecturer and head of the Hugh Shearer Labour Studies Institute at The University of the West Indies Open Campus, Danny Roberts says the country’s current education system is not adequately preparing the Jamaican workforce to confront the rapidly changing technological demands and the challenges associated with the future of work.

Roberts was speaking at a recent subregional technical and vocational education and training (TVET) workshop hosted by HEART Trust and the International Labour Orgnization/Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training in Kingston.

Roberts advocated for a far greater role for TVET to drive connections, complementarity, and the updating of our education system to address the paradox evident by the high level of unemployment existing among the youth, while employers continue to lament the shortage of skills required to meet emerging labour market demands.

According to Roberts, small island developing states like Jamaica need to rethink the pathway to quality employment by emphasising a fundamentally instrumental role for TVET in providing the requisite human capital to meet the skills requirements for sustainable development.

Roberts pointed to a 2018 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report which concluded that TVET is now seen as a powerful tool for fostering economic growth and has proven to be more effective for integrating marginalised groups into the labour market. He noted that TVET initiatives can play a useful role in reducing poverty, inequality and social exclusion by offering disadvantaged and marginalised groups the opportunity to acquire work-related skills.

Roberts highlighted the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report in which Jamaica was ranked 36 out of 141 countries in terms of the quality of vocational training, but 93 out of 141 when it comes to digital skills among the country’s active labour market.

He noted that the stigma associated with TVET still lingers in even emerging occupations like information technology, hospitality and management, and that an overhaul of Jamaica’s educational curricula must be a priority focus for the country to stand a chance to overcome the frightening challenges of artificial intelligence, automation and robotics that will characterise the world of work in the not too distant future.