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.”