Choose Careers for Logistics Hub

Students entering secondary schools are being encouraged to start charting their career paths early and to choose careers that will enable them to benefit from the Global Logistics Hub.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams, gave the advice on August 14, while addressing the Montego Co-operative Credit Union’s (MCCU) scholarship awards ceremony at Day O Plantation Restaurant in Montego Bay.

“The Logistics Hub means that the whole of Jamaica will now be an area where the whole world will pass through. It is something that is coming to our shores ….that opportunity is coming to us … and it means that there will be new jobs available,” she noted.

She pointed to opportunities in the areas of engineering, trucking, courier delivery, remittance, bio-technology, fashion and apparel, pharmaceuticals, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), furniture and furnishings, automotive, food and beverage, marine and offshore services. These areas, she said, will be under-subscribed without adequate preparation.

In anticipation of the Global Logistic Hub, Minister Ffolkes Abrahams informed that the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) will open a campus in Montego Bay in September “because our young people need to be trained in these areas.”

Meanwhile, a total of $465, 000 in scholarships and bursaries were awarded to seven successful Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) students, who are the children of active members of the MCCU.

Four Bayley-Hay scholarships were presented valued at $100,000 each, to assist the students throughout their five years in high school, and three bursaries totalling $65,000.

Two Bayley-Hay scholarships and three bursaries are usually presented annually but a decision was made to grant two additional scholarships this year to commemorate the 22nd renewal of the award.

Applicants must meet the criteria of high academic performance, with average grade of 90 per cent and above, and must be in need of financial assistance.