Steering Committee to assess needs of job market

AMONG its plans for the early part of 2021, the Ministry of Labour is expected to host a multi-stakeholder conference and formulate a steering committee to assess the employment needs in the country, to better match the projected growth.

This was revealed by Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, on Tuesday last as he delivered a feature address at an award ceremony held by the Ministry’s Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), to honour businesses that worked along with the agency to provide employment to a number of persons this year.
In his remarks, Hamilton noted that in Guyana the labour market is insufficient to cater to the needs of the country’s fast growing economy, and he warned that Guyanese must quickly play catch up or the jobs will continue to go to foreigners.

“My experience in the last five months has informed me that we are unprepared in this country for the new economies and industries. As Minister of Labour, I say to you the country is not doing well, skills that are necessary and needed don’t exist. Trinidadians are here, taking all the jobs, working for the big bucks,” Hamilton said.
Hence, the Ministry of Labour will be taking proactive steps towards playing its role in addressing this deficiency.

“Therefore in conjunction with the private sector, and the tripartite discussions we’ve had, we have determined that we will establish a steering committee to discuss and put together a conference to be held in the first quarter of next year, where we can discuss the needs of this country,” Hamilton noted.
He pointed out that particular emphasis must be placed on the technical and vocational sector, as these jobs are becoming increasingly in demand. Hamilton said that a number of agencies will be brought on board to be part of the initiative.

“We will ensure that this conference is spearheaded by the private sector, MoL, government, University of Guyana, and the tech-voc council to identify areas and form a steering committee so that we can have this conference going forward. Those are the things we plan to do,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton cautioned that the country “cannot develop blindly”, and there must be systems in place to ensure that there is neither a shortage nor surplus of labour in any particular sector.
“No one can say to us how many welders we need in this country, or how many mechanics, no one has the answer. We cannot just train and train and train, we have to ensure there is purpose. In some areas we are over trained, in some areas we don’t have anybody so employers have to bring overseas labour. That has to change,” he said.