Assistance for MDAs in Developing Workforce Plans

Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are encouraged to contact the Strategic Workforce, Planning and Improvement Branch at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service for assistance in developing workforce plans.

Director for the Talent and Knowledge Management Portfolio, Collette Cummings McCausland, told JIS News that although the branch is “fairly new” it is on hand to provide the necessary support to MDAs.

“We are available to… help you develop your workforce plan, your retirement plan, help you to implement talent management systems, which will also align with your performance management system and help you to develop your succession planning initiatives,” she said.

Launched in April 2022, the branch, which falls under the Strategic Human Resource Management Division, focuses on mapping the workforce of the country, specifically in the public sector.

“We are really involved in workforce planning-related activities to include workforce planning, talent management, knowledge management, succession planning, scholarship and assistance, bonding and compliance, labour trend analysis, and labour markets analysis, to find out the skills that are required [by] the Government of Jamaica currently,” Mrs. Cummings McCausland said.

She explained that the department works with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) to determine the priority areas and seeks partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors for scholarship assistance.

Mrs. Cummings McCausland said the core function of the branch is to produce a labour force that is in line with current global demands.

“We have discussion to find out what is really needed in the MDAs, what are the targeted programmes and the areas that may need strengthening.

We do institutional strengthening through technical assistance [from] countries such as Japan, Korea, Malaysia, where they have a targeted approach for a specific problem, and specific MDAs would be entitled to that training,” Mrs. Cummings McCausland pointed out.

MDAs can reach out to the Strategic Workforce, Planning and Improvement Branch at the following numbers – (876) 932-5024/932-5016/932-5015/932-5089/932-5006/932-5010.