SEEKING to address employer concerns about the quality and preparedness of the emerging workforce, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has signed an agreement with a regional consortium to better align curricula with job market demands.

The agreement, signed with four regional umbrella employer bodies, is expected to support development of an occupational skills and intelligence system to track and anticipate labour market needs, and guide how students are prepared for the world of work.

The groups include the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, the Caricom (Caribbean Community) Private Sector Organization, the Caribbean Network of Changes of Industry and Commerce, and the Caribbean Institute for Human Resource Management.

“The region’s employers have long had an interest in the education and output of our formal education systems in all our different countries, and I’m happy to be here this morning to formalise that long-standing collaboration between the region’s employers and the Caribbean Examinations Council,” said president of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation Wayne Chen, who was speaking on day four of the CXC Regional Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew on Thursday.

Representing the employers’ consortium, Chen said the push for closer alignment between education and employment was initially driven by high levels of youth unemployment but has since taken on greater urgency as global changes continue to reshape the labour market.

He pointed out that employers have identified a general lack of readiness in youth entering the workspace, with this concern being a prime influencing factor behind the partnership’s formation.

“For well over a decade the Caribbean Examinations Council has reached out to the region’s employers because there was a concern shared by all that the output of our formal education systems were not ready for the world of work. The imperative has grown stronger over the years.

“Initially it was sparked by the high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment but the imperative has gotten even stronger because the economic system, or social systems, have shown huge deficiencies in terms of the readiness of our young people for that,” said Chen.

He added that rapid technological shifts, including artificial intelligence, have also provided evidence that education systems need to evolve in order to produce a fully trained, informed, and functioning workforce.

“We have spent a lot of time in recent times talking about artificial intelligence, and it’s just the latest threat to our long-held beliefs and our long-held practices. And it reminds us that not only do we have to collaborate, not only do we have to hold hands, we have to find ways to adapt even more quickly to the rapidly changing world that we are living in,” added Chen.

Under the agreement, the employer consortium will work alongside CXC to provide insight into current and future job trends, helping to shape education systems that are more responsive to workforce needs.

Chen stressed, however, that the initiative is not solely about producing job-ready graduates, but about fostering well-rounded individuals.

“I want to make this point very forcefully: When you hear about employers wanting better workers, let me state right here, we are not only concerned about better workers, we are concerned about the whole human, the whole citizens.

“We are concerned about creating people, citizens, who are not just ready for the world of work, but ready for the world of citizenship — of responsible, productive, creative, self-fulfilling, prosperous, citizens. That is our concern, because even before we are employers, we are citizens of these countries, Caribbean people, who want our countries to develop in a holistic way,” he said.

Chen told the conference that the partnership is a significant milestone for the Caribbean and a culmination of work that started years ago to address the widening gap between educational output and the realities of the working world.

“The Caribbean Examination Council has been running far ahead of the pack. The employers have long wanted serious reforms to make sure not only that we are ready, but we are ready for the future, that we are adaptable, that we are relevant — because not doing so will cast us into underdevelopment,” added Chen.