While pointing to a growing worry of a shortage of skilled workers, Prime Minister Perry Christie said yesterday that he intends to announce by Monday a new multimillion-dollar development for Abaco.
He made the statement during the launch of the Education and Training for Competitiveness Programme at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel in downtown Nassau.
The programme is a joint initiative between the public and private sectors to find ways to enhance training in the country to prepare Bahamians for the thousands of job opportunities government officials say are already becoming available.
The shortage of labour problem is one the prime minister has pointed to in the past, indicating that it was one the government intended to address more forcefully through a national training programme.
Minister Christie, who provided no specifics on the new Abaco investment, spoke of the importance of training Bahamians to be prepared to take advantage of such developments.
“We are about to announce within the next 48 hours, or maybe Monday, another $300 million to $400 million development in Abaco,” Prime Minister Christie said. “We ought to be in there ensuring that we train as many [Bahamians] as possible.”
The government has secured the technical and financial assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank to facilitate the development of what iT said will be a dynamic education and training system.
The government has engaged the services of the International Education and Collaborative Foundation (IECF) to establish a public-private partnership that will design and implement a special skills training programme, according to officials driving the initiative.
They say it will be flexible enough to respond to labour market demands in a timely manner.
Minister Alfred Sears, who also attended the launch, explained that the project is inclusive of four major components: Early Childhood Education; Special Education; Information Management; and Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Minister Sears said that the Technical and Vocational Education and Training element is a critical part of education reform and workforce development in The Bahamas.
“We aim to strengthen our secondary and post secondary technical skills training system,” Minister Sear said, “to provide a well trained, flexible and adaptable work force.”
He said that the public-private partnership is vital to education training reform.
“The government and the IDB recognized that public-private partnership is priority,” Minister Sears said. “We are agreed also that we must identify an articulated industrial and education framework for the implementation of a successful and sustainable private-public collaboration.”
According to Minister Sears, in the past, the public sector involved the private sector after it has designed it projects and requires financial assistance.
But this time the public sector is advocating private sector involvement from the beginning, he noted.
The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, which represents the private sector in the initiative, will play a key role in the project.
“One of our challenges is to have a better alignment system and the skill requirements of the business community,” Chamber President Winston Rolle said in a press release.
“We recognize that we canﾴt leave it all for government to do. The private sector and community need to get more involved and participate in the effort to make sure that we do get the alignment of education and skills for the workforce.”
Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
