Minister urges private sector aid for ‘country-changing’ initiative

By JEFAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister last night urged the private sector to participate in the National Apprenticeship Programme and improve workforce skills levels.

Pia Glover Rolle, minister of labour and the public service, at a meeting with human resources executives urged corporate Bahamas to become part of the solution to the issues many employers have with recruiting and retaining staff.

She said: “I would like to invite you all, as human resources leaders in our country, who are finding it hard to recruit, finding it hard to engage, finding it hard to train and retrain and retain staff, which equates to loss, loss of money and no business likes to lose revenue, or training dollars.

“So we’re asking you to buy into this what we call country-changing initiative; this country changing work that is being done, and that you and your organisations will become a part of the solution that we have all in human resources been lamenting.”

Mrs Glover-Rolle explained that the apprenticeship programme will be nationally and internationally-recognised and can “shape the culture of our workforce”. It will include incentives for employers and organisations.

She said: “The programme is going to be, and has been so far, very data driven, very labour market responsive based on surveys, based on stakeholder meetings, based on studies. And it will be a nationally and internationally-recognised apprenticeship that will not only shape the culture of our workforce but the future of our country.

“One of the key takeaways we brought back from our talks with other countries is also we need to create incentives for you, for the employers, to participate. And we’re developing and communicating, and we’ll be communicating those incentives to you in short order. But we also recognise that there has to be some value for you, as well as organisations and as employers.”

Speaking to Tribune Business, Mrs Glover Rolle said since the Apprenticeship Bill has been out for public consultation there has been “positive feedback”. She said the Governmentnis still consulting with the private sector on exactly what the incentives for their participation will be.

“We’re very pleased to note that since we’ve been putting our Bill out for consultation, we’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback and desire for private sector employers to be a part of the National Apprenticeship Programme, so we’re very encouraged by that,” she added.

“We’re still investigating what some of those incentives will be, and this will be by having conversations like this with the employers. What benefits them? What does your organisation need that could give it a boost that the Government can offer? So once we come to that conclusion, we will be rolling out those incentives to employers.”

Mrs Glover-Rolle added that employers want workers that are “trainable”, and the incentives will not be for their participation as there are “no issues” with recruitment, but to encourage businesses throughout the country to be a part of the “solution to improving our labour market”.

She said: “Private sector is wanting to engage employees that are trainable, employees that have fresh perspective. We will also have to give some incentives to organisations, not to participate because we have no issues with participation to date…but incentives to encourage more organisations across the country to be a part of what we call the solution to improving our labour market.”

Comments

moncurcool says...

After all the quotes in this article, could someone please tell me what the program is to be about?

Posted 1 May 2024, 1:18 p.m. Suggest removal

bahamianson says...

What was it? 60% of government school children left school with a leaving certificate last year , and yoy want some privage company to hire them? Stop talking foolishness. The government dictates to the privage sector , then wants them to bail it out . These kida show up to school late, disrespect each other and the teachers. What do you think they will do in the private sector? They come to work late, leave early , disrespect the boss and complain all with wanting a pay raise.they need to get a gobment job where they can show up late, eat , dri k and go on the cell phone all day, then leave early. Let the government tax their income.

Posted 1 May 2024, 7:07 p.m. Suggest removal

bahamianson says...

Ley all the stud3nts syart their own company , then they can make as much as they want.

Posted 1 May 2024, 7:09 p.m. Suggest removal

DiverBelow says...

What is Government providing as an incentive? Reduced VAT would be a start. Their failure in educating the generations should NOT be paid by private sector without incentives to share the load! This government only knows how to collect without investing... typical political elite expecting others to do THEIR JOB. GET RID OF EM ALL!!

Posted 2 May 2024, 8:16 a.m. Suggest removal

ExposedU2C says...

This corrupt and incompetent Davis led PLP government has crippled most businesses to the point where they are struggling to survive with no means of supporting apprenticeship programs of any kind.

Pia knows full well that the extremely high and ever growing unemployment rate in our country today is attributable in large part to government's failure to introduce and implement meaningful policies aimed at stimulating business growth, reducing business costs, and easing the ability to do business.

Government is staring at another year where thousands of young Bahamians will soon be graduating from high school and UB with no ability to find decent paying jobs in the private sector. And Pia knows government can no longer afford to hire many in this year's graduating classes by growing the country's already grossly over-bloated and very costly civil work force.

The size and cost of our public sector has crowded out resources that should be made available to help fund policies aimed at growing the domestic private sector and thereby increasing the country's tax base rather than suffocating it.

Posted 2 May 2024, 9:08 a.m. Suggest removal

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