• 'Sobering': Bahamas among world's most unequal societies

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

"A significant" number of young Bahamians are being lured into the drug trade as 50 percent of high school leavers graduate without even a diploma, a policy document is asserting.

The newly-released Apprenticeship Policy Framework for The Bahamas, linking poor educational achievement and lack of basic skills to high crime and poverty levels as well as poor productivity and weak economic performance, voiced optimism that the launch of "work-based learning" for students in grade seven and upwards will "shift cultural norms" in these areas.

The policy paper, released over the Christmas holidays, also suggested The Bahamas is among the world's most unequal societies with its close rating to South Africa - the worst offender - branded "a sobering thought".

And it suggested the results of the last Bahamas Labour Force survey showed that "immigrants are enjoying the economic growth and not the local people" despite the economy's more rapid-than-expected recovery to pre-COVID output after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.

"Shortcomings in education and training are amidst the main challenges identified in the 2020 United Nations common country analysis (CCA), with 50 percent of youth who complete secondary school not qualified to receive a diploma," the Policy Framework asserted.

"Many local youth do not leave school with the requisite foundational learning levels to qualify to enter apprenticeship, and those that do are more inclined to an academic learning pathway rather than an apprenticeship pathway, also known as blue collar work.

"A significant amount of young people also gravitate towards the drug trade or employment that generates income without the need for high skill levels, including occupations such as taxi drivers or bartenders."

These deficiencies are what the proposed National Apprenticeship Programme is intended to help cure. "A quality apprenticeship system that becomes entrenched in the Bahamian culture from an early school-going stage, suggested at least from grade seven, will shift cultural norms and allow local employers to engage with local youth within a work-based learning context," the Policy Framework said.

"Social inequality is a significant feature in The Bahamas, with a Gini co-efficient of 0.53 in 2019 - a sobering thought when compared to the worst in the world, South Africa, at 0.63. The Bahamas National Labour Force survey indicated that immigrants are enjoying the economic growth and not the local people.

"The large numbers of work permits requested from the Department of Immigration attest to this fact, and it is also considered a reason why a quality apprenticeship system is needed in The Bahamas to support the skills development process for local youth in particular."

No empirical evidence was presented to support the assertion that expatriate, or foreign workers, are benefiting more from the post-COVID recovery than Bahamians. However, a significant proportion of the work permits issued and renewed annually by the Department of Immigration go to Haitians, Jamaicans and Filipinos for jobs such as gardeners, handymen, construction workers and maids.

These are all jobs that Bahamians can perform but elect not to do, with many viewing such posts as beneath them or the salaries on offer too low. "Current Bahamian economic prospects are on an upward trajectory, but skills are needed for residents, in particular the youth, as at present many foreigners are employed when those jobs could go to local people with the requisite skills," the Policy Framework said.

"There is also a view that even Bahamians who have the necessary skills are not employed, possibly due to a lack of relationships between employers and those that are unemployed. A quality apprenticeship system that creates a talent development pipeline for young Bahamians placed as apprentices with local employers is considered a vital intervention to correct this current skewed employment trend."

Peter Goudie, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) labour division head, and a member of the National Apprenticeship Taskforce that helped to design the proposed scheme, yesterday voiced hope that an initiative which will certify young Bahamians as possessing particular skills sought by employers will help to "curb" crime and other anti-social behaviours.

"Hopefully it will have a societal impact, both on the labour force and crime and poverty," he told Tribune Business. "There's going to be a whole bunch of ripple effects from this. Employers are going to benefit because they will get certified workers.

"If it works to its full effect, it's going to increase people will be trained, so they will be more productive and that helps the economy also. It's a good news story. We just have to get it off the ground. We're ready and trying to do it the right way. The initiative is badly needed because we need to get certified workers and employers can have more confidence in their employees."

The existing Apprenticeship Act is more than 40 years-old, having been implemented on January 1, 1983, and Mr Goudie said the replacement legislation - which will accompany the Policy Framework - is set to be "finalised soon" and presented to the Government before being taken to Parliament.

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us," he acknowledged. "We hope to have it up and running in full this year for sure. It's going to help a lot of people, give them soft skills in maths and English if they need it. They're also going to be certified; that will be the biggest issue.

"A lot of it will be City and Guilds. The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) and the National Training Agency (NTA) offer that now. The University of The Bahamas will be involved, and many specialist trainers will be involved. There's going to be a lot of certifications for areas such as electrical, plumbing."

Apprenticeship initiatives are nothing new in The Bahamas. The Government previously partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on a $50m ‘Skills for Current and Future Jobs in the Bahamas’ project, although the funds were ultimately used to provide employment support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This, in its original form, saw apprenticeship - with its emphasis on ‘on-the-job’ training - as key to young and unemployed Bahamians acquiring the skills and necessary experience that will endear them to employers, and enable them to find sustainable jobs. The latest initiative has taken this concept on and moved it forward to the point of implementation.

"We've been working on this from before Hurricane Dorian and COVID," Mr Goudie said, referring to the IDB-funded effort. "They had to take away our funding because it was needed elsewhere. A lot of work had been done on this already, and a lot of those people who worked on the last version we have brought back. We've got a lot of expertise on board so there's no reason why this shouldn't take off."