Baptiste: You must have subjects of relevance

Private enterprises, government and trade unions gathered at the Chamber of Commerce Conference room on Tuesday, June 27, to learn more about the importance of establishing a Labour Market Information base bank.

Speaking at the workshop, President of the Employers Federation, Don Providence noted that having readily available information of the employment situation in the country, would be especially helpful to potential investors in their decision making.{{more}}

Also endorsing the need for a data bank on workers and their skills was President of the National Labour Congress, Cecil “Pa” Jack. He suggested that trade unions should compile a skills data bank of their members for information purposes and called on unions to be more proactive as agents of employment activities.

Meanwhile, feature speaker at the event, Minister of Labour René Baptiste noted that the information from the workshop would enable the Labour Department to inform economic sectors of the skill requirements of the labour market.

Baptiste emphasised that persons must be skilled and certified, “It is no longer enough to have five, eight and nine subjects, you must have subjects of relevance, bearing in mind what is the future. You have to be engaging and open to the new methodologies, and learn from persons who have attained these skills through advanced education so that we as a country could build on what we have.”

She reminded the participants, “This is not a workshop where we get the findings and put them on the back burner to gather dust. This information is required for our performance, competitiveness and levels of productivity, we must be able to tap on skills that are just a click of a mouse away.”

The tripartite consultation was part of the Department of Labour and Statistical Unit’s agreement with the Caribbean Labour Market Information System Project, and coordinated by the International Labour Office, ILO Caribbean Office.

The United States Department of Labour funded the workshop.