HEART TRUST/NTA Readies Workforce for Logistics Hub Initiative

The HEART Trust/NTA has been focused on making the workforce ready for businesses and activities associated with the Logistics Hub Initiative (LHI).

As such, the entity has been spearheading several training programmes and developing courses to facilitate this initiative.

Senior Director of the Workforce Development and Employment Division at HEART Trust/NTA, Denworth Finnikin, said the necessary training is being provided to have persons equipped and ready to take on jobs that will become available as a result of the LHI.

“One of the pillars of the Logistics Hub is a highly skilled and well trained workforce and the HEART Trust/NTA has ramped up its programme offerings to include courses that are so related. In so doing, we have identified a number of programmes that we need to offer to be able to support Jamaica being the fourth node in the global logistics business and those are a range of courses from computerized crane operators to custom brokers to shipping clerk, shipping officer and others,” Mr. Finnikin noted.

The Senior Director said that the entity has done labour market research and based on findings decided on the courses and training programmes to be conceptualized to meet the demands related to positioning the country to be a logistics-centred economy.

To undertake this thrust, he explained, HEART Trust/NTA has been working with its parent ministry, the Ministry of Education and various institutions to up skill teachers, students and persons interested in the LHI.

“There are areas in which we have already trained persons…there is a cadre of painters, electricians, welders, air condition/refrigeration technicians and within another three months, we will begin training in heavy duty driving,” Mr. Finnikin informed.

He noted that another major development by HEART Trust/NTA and the Overseas Examination Commission is the purchasing of the Machado Complex in downtown Kingston, which will be established as a training facility to focus specifically on some of those programmes for the Logistics Hub.

“In another year or 18 months, we should be able to have operations commenced in this facility. The training programmes that will be offered there will be based on labour market intelligence and so we are designing the facility to be able to respond at short notice to demands. We are not going to be setting up fixed training labs, but it will be a flexible training system,” the Senior Director pointed out.

Mr. Finnikin said the HEART Trust/NTA eagerly anticipates implementation of the various projects that will be involved in the logistics hub, such as the development of the Caymanas Economic Zone.

“What we can assure investors locally and globally is that they have a worthy partner in the HEART Trust/NTA and so we make ourselves available to work with them as we are an enabler to economic development,” he added.

The Logistics Hub initiative is being spearheaded by the Government in an effort to position the island as the fourth major node in the global supply and logistics chain. This is intended to enable the country to take advantage of an anticipated increase in maritime activity, consequent on the expansion of the Panama Canal.