The separation of regulatory functions from the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) to the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA) allows for greater transparency, as the two perform separate but complementary roles. “The separation allows the NCRA to assume the roles previously held by the Bureau of Standards, such as the inspection of facilities, inspection at the ports of entry...

Cabinet has approved the development of a National Employment Policy by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to facilitate several modalities of worker engagement. Speaking during a recent Post-Cabinet Press Briefing, Minister without Portfolio in the OPM with Responsibility for Information, Hon. Robert Morgan, said the policy “will also target youth who are not academically qualified but still trainable”....

As activity in the tropical Atlantic intensifies, the island’s major utility companies have indicated their preparedness for severe weather conditions. Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Senior Manager, George Kates, said that the company has invested heavily in its disaster-preparedness plans, which were continually developed using many years of lessons. He said that critical staff and third-party contractors are mobilised and emergency...

D-O-D-E-C-A-H-E-D-R-O-N, meaning a three-dimensional figure having 12 faces that are pentagonal in shape, was the winning word spelled by 72-year-old Olga Williams of St. Mary to win the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC)18th National Seniors Spelling Bee Competition. Ms. Williams was among 13 parish finalists who converged at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew on Thursday (September...

Global outsourcing company Intelcia is projecting a 23 per cent increase in its employees by the end of 2022. The company, which currently has 608 employees, is expecting to employ an additional 142 persons by the end of this year. This information was shared by Cluster Director for Intelcia Jamaica, Mireille Debruycker, at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’,...

The tourism sector is fortunate to be recovering rapidly after a tumultuous two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), Godfrey Dyer. Representing Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, at a Thanksgiving Service to officially launch Tourism Awareness Week activities, at the Montego Bay New Testament Church, in St. James, on September 25, Mr....

More than 5,000 persons have benefited from the Graduate Work Experience Programme (GWEP), implemented by the Human Employment and Resource Training/National Service Training Agency (HEART/NSTA) Trust. The programme targets unemployed graduates, aged 17 to 29 years, with little or no experience in their field of study. Participants are placed within public and private-sector entities where they are exposed to six...