December 6, 2022
The Caribbean is well on its way to becoming a global tech hub, with an increasing number of jobs in digital fields being made available over the past year. Additionally, more Caribbean nations have launched programmes aimed to upskill citizens to perform highly-skilled tech jobs or equip entrepreneurs and other small businesses to successfully expand into the digital market.
“With the way Caribbean businesses and governments are going, and all the efforts being made in this front, the region could well become a tech hub sooner than some might think,” says Joseph Boll, CEO, Caribbean Employment Services Inc. “While this region is typically known for tourism and hospitality — beautiful beaches, luxurious hotels, friendly people — new developments could see it recognized for tech development, too.”
Caribbean Employment Services Inc. is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad. Further, it aims to provide the region’s jobseekers and those who are already employed with news and resources related to Caribbean labour, thereby providing insight into where the labour market might be headed.
Over the past year, the organization has noted significant advancements in the technology field in the region, with several nations advancing digital industries that were previously never considered for the small island developing states (SIDS) of the Caribbean.
In September, Barbados launched its first video game industry — a field very few people would associate with the island nation’s gorgeous locale and iconic culture. Similarly, around the same time last year, a Puerto Rican organization announced its intention to expand investments in interactive media, including video games, virtual reality and augmented reality. The Bahamas famously landed crypto enterprises that saw its name associated with digital finance giants.
Meanwhile, training programmes also began being rolled out en masse to position Caribbean natives to garner high-earning jobs in digital and tech fields in the years and even months ahead. Barbados once again demonstrated its interest in this area, launching a training programme in partnership with Canada to train thousands of Barbadians to fill cybersecurity roles — a field expected to have a labour shortage of 3.5 million. Jamaica, Belize and Guyana likewise rolled out programmes to provide digital training, projects expected to provide thousands of jobs in tech.
“There’s no doubt about it — when the Caribbean decided to diversify into the digital space, it took it seriously,” said Boll. “More and more digital and tech jobs are becoming available, and it looks like that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.”