By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s own advisers have warned that “noted deficiencies” in core and technical skills are impeding the hiring of Bahamians in Freeport, with less than four in 10 Grand Bahama Shipyard employees coming from this nation.

The Hawksbill Creek Agreement Review Committee warned the Christie administration that ‘skills gaps’ in the Bahamian workforce were both undermining economic growth on Grand Bahama and elsewhere, and acting as an obstacle to attracting new industries in Freeport.

The recently-released report highlighted how just 39.2 per cent of the Grand Bahama Shipyard’s workforce, or 330 out of 840 total workers, were Bahamian despite the company enjoying an average annual revenue growth rate of 7 per cent.

Disclosing the results of the Committee’s March 2015 meeting with the Shipyard, now a $140 million business, the report said: “Grand Bahama Shipyard currently employs approximately 330 Bahamians, out of roughly 840 employees, and has attributed its low share of Bahamian workers to a lack of skilled candidates for specialties such as welding and pipefitting.”

The Government has moved swiftly to tackle the relatively low Bahamian labour component at the Grand Bahama Shipyard.

Perhaps prompted by the Committee’s June 2015 report, Prime Minister Perry Christie in March this year announced an agreement with the Government that will see the Grand Bahama Shipyard recruit and train 600 Bahamians over the next four years.

The stated goal was to replace, and significantly lower, the expatriate workforce component at the company.

However, the Committee’s report noted that it was not just the Grand Bahama Shipyard but also other major Freeport-based industrial concerns that were having difficulty in satisfying their labour needs locally.

In particular, Polymers International was said to have witnessed “noted deficiencies” in mathematical and other basic skills competencies among Bahamians who had taken its pre-employment tests.

In language that many Bahamas-based employers will recognise as all too-familiar, the report said: “The Committee heard, consistently, in its conversations with businesses that there is an opportunity to increase the skill levels of workers in Grand Bahama, and provide support to make more workers job-ready.”

Warning of the consequences stemming from the Bahamas’ human capital weaknesses, the Committee recorded that the labour force participation rate in Grand Bahama had dropped by 20 per cent between 2007 and 2014.

“The success of the economic development plan rests on a prepared workforce that has the capabilities needed across the sectors that Grand Bahama island seeks to retain, expand and attract,” the report said.

“Without workforce training, there is a risk that the benefits of economic growth would not flow to Bahamians.”

It added: “Stakeholder interviews with current businesses in Grand Bahama revealed two areas to address: Skill gaps in core competencies and gaps in necessary vocational skills.

“Businesses have noted that pre-employment tests as part of the hiring process show noted deficiencies in mathematical reasoning and low scores on other basic competencies.”

The ‘footnotes’ to the report make clear that the ‘pre-employment tests’ findings came from Polymers International, one of Grand Bahama’s largest industrial concerns.

The Committee recommended that when it came to basic skills, the Government should conduct another assessment of the workforce’s current competencies as measured against Grand Bahama - and the wider Bahamas’ - future needs.

It suggested the results could inform reforms to the Bahamian primary and high school education curriculum that aligned them better with the economy’s needs.

“Vocational skill training is also critical both to grow existing sectors of the economy and to increase the share of Bahamians employed in existing industries,” the report said.

“Stakeholder interviews revealed the need to develop specific technical skills, and how skills gaps are hurting the hiring of Bahamians.”

In a further reference to the Grand Bahama Shipyard, the Committee added: “Technical skills gaps are lowering the share of Bahamians employed in maritime services due to a lack of job-ready workers for technical roles such as pipefitting, welding and mechanics.

“To attract new sectors to Grand Bahama, companies need to be assured that the workforce is able to meet their needs.”

The Committee said there were several options the Government could employ to tackle the ‘skills gaps’, either partnering with business or ‘going it alone’ to develop training programmes geared to the economy’s current and future needs.

It also suggested that the Government “incentivise” apprenticeship programmes, either through providing willing companies with grants or tax breaks, or linking such programmes to other benefits.

The Committee’s report pointed to Puerto Rico, where the island’s university and government partnered to create an Aeronautical and Aerospace Institute, thereby providing a high quality workforce to attract Lufthansa’s investment in an aircraft maintenance facility.

It added that there was “ample evidence” that technical skills could be rapidly taught, using 10-week courses to train Indian welders as an example.

Just to make sure the Government understood, the Committee concluded: “Human capital is an essential enabler to retain current businesses, expand core industries and attract new sectors.

“Leveraging national programmes, Grand Bahama can create the conditions for a workforce that will drive economic success.”