Gov’t Ramping Up Skills Training

The Government has increased skills training to further boost employment and better equip Jamaicans to support current and future development.

The move will build on the country’s record low unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent and ensure that jobs of the future can be higher paying than those that exist today, said Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke.

He noted that already tuition fees for courses up to level four at the HEART NSTA/Trust have been removed to enable more Jamaicans to get trained, certified and employable.

“So, what we have to do over the next decade is radically ramp up in producing the kind of skills that can help develop our country,” he said.

Dr. Clarke was speaking during Wednesday’s (September 20) edition of ‘Good Morning, Minister’ on Love 101 FM.

Noting that “the future is cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer programming and digital animation”, Dr. Clarke said the Government has provided over 1,000 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) scholarships for students to pursue studies in these areas at the University of Technology (UTech).

“You know what happens if you go and get trained in cybersecurity or you get a job in animation? The salary that you can earn is much higher than other salaries,” he pointed out.

Highlighting the need for skills to support infrastructure development, Dr. Clarke said there are three highway projects that are ongoing, and a slate of other improvements are to be made in transportation.

“What we need for those things… we need engineers, we need skilled technicians. We can’t forever be importing these people to develop our country,” the Minister said, noting that there are only 867 engineers in the country.

He said that there is also a shortage of other skilled workers such as plumbers, masons, carpenters.

The country’s unemployment rate fell to the record low of 4.5 per cent in April 2023, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) Labour Force Survey.

This was 1.5 percentage points lower than the out-turn for the corresponding period in 2022.

Minister Clarke pointed out that more than 150,000 Jamaicans have jobs today who were without employment in 2016.

Furthermore, he said, more than 1.3 million Jamaicans are now working, which is a threshold never crossed in the country’s history.