MONTEGO BAY, St James — Sections of the economy that are struggling to retain staff could learn a thing or two from the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, according to Port Authority of Jamaica vice-president of BPO and logistics Gloria Henry.

Citing measures put in place from as far back as six years ago to ensure there were enough trained workers for the sector, Henry, who is also director of Global Services Association, said the BPO sector would willingly share the secret of its success with those who need it.

“In 2016, supported by the Government, we took a study tour of Hungary to look at the system that they had there that was providing demand-led training machinery to support their industries in Jamaica. And today, together with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Global Services Skills project is addressing the post-secondary education skills gap to ensure the labour force is skilled to meet the evolving needs of our sector,” she at Friday’s grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for Omni Nearshore BPO company’s new home at Barnett Estate in Montego Bay.

This is in stark contrast to the field of education, where concerns have been raised that there may be a shortage of teachers of some subjects when school resumes next month.

“Both presidents of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools have raised the alarm, but we [in the BPO sector] are creating economic shock immunity,” said Henry.

She said that over the years there has been a significant focus on strengthening the institutions that the BPO sector works with, such as HEART/NSTA Trust, and connecting academia with the industry to ensure training reflects the needs of the sector. She said this was secured by establishing the Global Services Skills Council, a novel entity supporting demand-led training for the global services sector (GSS).

The project has resulted in approximately 500 trainers being trained and equipped with the requisite job readiness skills via a train-the-trainer initiative. This enables trainers to effectively convey and instil core competencies in students in preparation for the world of work.

Since 2019, Henry said, the GSS project has offered apprenticeships, internships, and finishing school programmes which have benefited more than 20 GSS firms and about 2,000 employees.

According to Henry, through the finishing school framework, professionals in the sector have been provided with training in specific industry demand areas. Employees can access funded training to upskill and/or reskill in short courses that address skills gaps or demand in areas such as cybersecurity, managing teams remotely, effective communication, and effective leadership, she said.

“Importantly, we have started to create a path for training professionals to access opportunities in the GSS. The project called for internships to connect tertiary level professionals with higher value-added opportunities in the GSS, thus giving them a chance to explore and decide if this is a sector in which they want to work,” stated Henry.

She stressed that she was not saying the BPO sector does not have labour challenges, but was instead making the point that they proactively identify and implement solutions. She referenced the sector’s pivot during the novel coronavirus pandemic when it put measures in place to facilitate work from home for 60 per cent of its staff during a temporary lockdown of the country’s economy.

“Various career fairs have also been done during the pandemic, where we found a platform that allowed us to connect… persons who are seeking employment to those opportunities in the GSS. So I have to apologise to KFC for having not been able to find people because we have taken everybody, and this is because we were preparing from 2016 for this,” Henry said jokingly.