The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian private sector is being “seriously disadvantaged” by the workforce quality it is being presented with, an outspoken businessman yesterday suggesting this nation needs a leadership development institute similar to that created by Baha Mar.

Dionsio D’Aguilar, the Superwash president, a panellist at  a ‘Transformation: Skills for Work’ forum, said: “We need a mechanism like the leadership development institute by Baha Mar, developed, paid for, funded to run 600, 800, 1,000 kids through to give them the self-confidence and self-worth that goes such a long way when you are trying to fulfill your responsibilities on your job.”

One out of every four Bahamian job seekers lacks the necessary “behavioural skills” suitable for the workplace, according to an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report.

Documents released as part of the newly-launched $20 million Citizen Security and Justice initiative disclose that Bahamian employers find almost a quarter of job seekers lack the necessary workplace attitudes and socialisation.

Drawing on a 2012 survey of 505 Bahamian employers, the IDB found that 24 per cent of job seekers on New Providence, and 25 per cent on Grand Bahama lacked the necessary “behavioural skills” to make them employable.

These skills likely include dress, attitudes, arriving to work on time and the ability to interact properly with both colleagues and customers.

Effectively, the survey findings suggest that Bahamian societies, families and the education system are failing to equip 25 per cent of the population with the ‘basics’ necessary to make them employable.

“The private sector is seriously disadvantaged by the workforce it is being presented with. If you speak to a business owner and ask them why you don’t expand, it’s always that they can’t find good labour,” Mr D’Aguilar said.

Robert Farquharson, the director of labour, said the Bahamas needs to take a look at its educational system.

“We really need to take a look at our educational system from as early as age three and see if we are missing the marks,” said Mr Farquharson.

In my view, our educational system today is not appropriate for preparing our graduates for the workforce. We have to look at the entire system.”