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Donald Foster, executive director of the Heart Trust/National Training Agency.

Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

DONALD FOSTER, the executive director of the Heart Trust/National Training Agency, says there is "no shortage of job opportunities, here and elsewhere, for people who are prepared to take advantage of these."

He makes it clear that most people will only succeed in the job market if they are trainable and certified, especially with Jamaica's economy being based more on service industries and less on production and extraction of resources.

"It is a different world that we are living in now, and if our people are going to be effective and productive citizen-workers, we have to equip them with a good basic education and skills to operate," Foster tells The Sunday Gleaner. "There are tremendous opportunities here and elsewhere for those who are prepared," the HEART Trust/NTA head states.

20,000 new jobs

He identifies hospitality and tourism as one sector where an abundance of new jobs will soon emerge. According to Foster, some 20,000 new jobs will be created in the sector within the next five years.

"We have done the analysis of the number of rooms that will be built in the next five years and we have extrapolated from that the labour-force requirement for the expansion in the tourism sector, and the demand will be 20,000 skilled persons," Foster discloses.

Included in the list of employees that will be required are tour guides, managers, chefs, entertainers and beauty technicians.

"There will be significant growth in tourism here in Jamaica, the Caribbean and, of course, beyond the Caribbean. Many job opportunities are being opened up."

Uneducated, uncertified

But Foster warns that these job opportunities could elude members of the local workforce if citizens are not equipped with a sound basic education. Too many of the island's people, he commented, remained uneducated, untrained and uncertified.

According to the 2006 labour force survey published by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, approximately one third of the Jamaican workforce (1.2 million persons) is deemed to be competent, but has no certification.

Furthermore, almost half of the workforce has not passed a single CXC CSEC examination. New statistics from the Caribbean Exami-nations Council show that of the 35,428 students who sat the 2006 mathematics exam, only 32 per cent managed to achieve grade one to three. This represents a decrease over last year's 36 per cent. This figure is also three per cent below the regional average.

"We need to pay a lot more attention to the education system," Foster advises. "We need to ensure that it is providing people with that sound educational base. Our people must have strong literacy, good language and communication skills, good interpersonal and team skills, and good analytical skills," he adds.

The training official also criticises some aspects of the curricula in tertiary institutions.

"We need to define, through the relevant research and labour- market information, what competencies our people require, and use that to determine our learning plan," he says of tertiary institutions.

In last Sunday's Gleaner, some university graduates complained about the inability to land meaningful jobs. Foster suggests one reason for this is that some tertiary programmes may not offer the necessary grounding required.

"Not only should we equip people with the competencies for job employment but, we must also equip them to create their own employment," he states. "Teach more entrepreneurial-skills development in the tertiary environment so that the graduates of our institution have the brain power to not only find jobs, but also to create their own jobs," Foster adds.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com