February 6, 2024
While programmes that provide skills training, upskilling and on-the-job training to residents are commendable and necessary, it’s just as crucial to ensure participants aren’t left on their own upon successful completion, says Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO Joseph Boll.
Boll’s firm is a market-leading talent acquisition service based in Barbados but operational throughout the Caribbean region. It boasts a candidate pool of more than 35,000 unique jobseekers signed up to receive job notifications daily, and it has worked with dozens of employers both large and small in the Caribbean, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“Upskilling and training opportunities will always play a vital role in the labour market, ensuring that people can access higher and higher quality jobs,” Boll says. “But there should be appropriate follow-up to go along with that. Some participants can come out on the other side disheartened when they’ve made this commitment and effort to upskill so they can qualify for better jobs, but then they still can’t access those job opportunities.”
The CEO’s comments come on the heels of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commending the Government of Antigua for its various skills training programmes and investment in vocational training. The IMF suggested that better training programmes are the direct pathway to providing high-quality jobs to residents of Antigua. As such, it suggested that the government make more of an effort to bolster such training programmes.
In its 2023 Article IV Consultation — Press Release and Staff Report, released in January 2024, the IMF said: “The recent investment in vocational training and local university is expected to enhance the quality of, and access to, tertiary education programs. The quality of vocational training should be further improved with an eye to increase the number of graduates finding jobs. The New Work Experience Programme, which provides on-the-job training, could be made more effective by routinely evaluating outcomes and ensuring participants’ successful exit from the program. The One Stop Employment Centre should enhance its capabilities to match employers with employees.”
Boll notes: “The IMF also encouraged more job placement efforts, and better tracking of that to make sure that skills training programmes are as effective as they can be. At Caribbean Employment Services Inc., we absolutely agree with that. Our firm is a resource for Caribbean people who complete such training programmes, to help them now find better job opportunities with their new skills, and we’re happy to offer services for free to jobseekers. We cannot work alone, however. We’d like to see more partnerships and more job placements accompany training programmes whenever and wherever they are rolled out.”