Skills not available locally, non-nationals have to be hired says Finance Minister

NON- NATIONALS ARE being hired to fill several jobs in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) simply because locals did not have the required skill sets.

This is according to Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves, who said on the ULP Speaks radio programme on Wednesday, September, 8, 2024 that students have to start looking at non-traditional career paths and focus on areas that are not crowded locally and are in demand.

He observed that 15 years ago, students were focussed on psychology; then about 10 years ago students had an interest in forensics “because CSI was a big thing on TV”, and now a lot of people are focussed on taking business management and business studies.

“…and again, nothing is wrong with any of these pursuits…in between, you see engineering start to come up…,” he noted.

“In my day, you had to be a doctor, a lawyer…but there’s so many opportunities, and there’s so many options.”

Gonsalves added that where he sits in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Information Technology, a lot of times he wants to hire people “to help get things done” but the qualifications needed for the jobs are lacking.

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