A recently published HEART/NTA tracer study of 2006-2007 graduates, looking at the information and communication technology sector, agriculture, building construction and hospitality indicates that CISCO trainees enjoy the best employment rates and pay among all graduates.

According to the tracer study - published in early 2009 - skill areas that carried the overall highest employment rates were CISCO certified technicians, seeing 92 per cent employment, followed by crop production, with 86 per cent employment, and hotel accounting at 86 per cent.

CISCO offers training in high-end routers, switches, PBXs, and other networking tools and is said to be the backbone of the Internet.

On average, as well, the highest paid respondents employed in an occupational area related to the training received were CISCO certified ($15,898), plumbing and pipe fitting ($8,996), and web page designs ($8,900). Income earned by the skilled sector ranged from $6,134 for to $15,898.

The tracer study indicated that workers trained to Level Three and Four, the highest levels of certification, enjoyed between 79 to 100 per cent employment, except in the area of agro-processing.

Employment was high for Level Four-trained electrical installation and welding and fabrication technicians.

Among HEART graduates, in general, gross weekly income earned by respondents who were employed at the time of the survey showed that of those who were self-employed, the average income earned was $8,502 and was slightly higher when compared to the income earned by persons employed by someone ($7,987) and the last salary earned by both unemployed respondents ($6,134) and those outside the labour force ($6,248).

Overall, the most frequent income earned by respondents was $5,000.

As expected, the higher the level of training, the greater the monetary rewards, as on average, respondents trained at Level Three or Four in HEART programmes commanded a higher income ($13,459) when compared to the income earned by respondents trained at Level One ($7,217) and Level Two ($8,507).

On average, respondents trained at an institution-based training centre were paid more ($8,314) when compared to the salaries earned by respondents trained at a community-based centre ($6,065).

Employment rate

Kerron Lindo, director of research and evaluation at Heart/NTA suggests that low-skilled or no-skilled workers often have a higher employment rate than workers with two or three CXC subjects locally.

"Those with just about three CXC subjects are less likely to be employed than those without this kind of certification and who are willing to take a job at lower income."

Some graduates, he said, were not prepared to take what was being offered and this may contribute to unemployment appearing high in some areas.

According to the study, respondents who resided in the parishes of Hanover enjoyed 80 per cent employment, St Thomas 79 per cent, Manchester 74 per cent, and St James 74 per cent were the best places to be located.

Those who resided in the parishes of St Mary had an employment rate of 51 per cent, Clarendon 52 per cent and Trelawny 53 per cent, standing a lower chance of being employed nationally.

avia.collinder@ gleanerjm.com

Table II: Employment Rate by Skill Area of HEART 2006-2007 graduates

Skill Areas Total employed Welding and Fabrication 100%(CISCO Certified/CISCO IT Essentials 92%Crop Production 85.7%Hotel Accounting 85.7%Carpentry and Joinery 77.8%Computer Repairs 76.1%Office Software Applications 72.7%Electrical Installation 71.4%Farm Maintenance71.4%Villa Services 70.6%Network Administration 70.0%Ornamental Horticulture 68.2%Plumbing and Pipe Fitting 68.0%Data Operations 64.7%General Construction 64.1%Food Preparation 62.8%Front Office 60.0%Masonry 59.1%Housekeeping 55.0%Web Page Designs 55.0%Food and Beverage 54.9%Livestock Rearing 45.5%Agro Processing 44.0%TOTAL 63.5%