By NATARIO McKENZIE
Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
A TOP Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) executive yesterday cited the inadequate Bahamian education system for forcing it to "adjust" its recruiting policy and target university students/graduates for even the most basic positions.
Tim Rider, RBC Caribbean's senior vice-president of sales, told RoyalFidelity's Economic Outlook conference that the Bahamas cannot allow the education 'status quo' to persist if it is to be competitive in the global economy. "The single biggest factor, in my view, that is now and will continue to lead to income and wealth inequality in the Bahamas is the inadequate education and training of its citizens," he warned.
Mr Rider said poor educational achievement, coupled with the Bahamas' one:one exchange rate peg with the US dollar, places the country at a significant disadvantage when international companies look to invest.
Highlighting RBC's own experience, Mr Rider said the bank has seen a "significant deterioration" in its ability to hire persons at the entry-level customer service representative post. He blamed this on many Bahamians lacking the basic math skills to perform their duties successfully.
"We are adjusting our recruiting policy towards only considering university students and/or graduates for all roles, including what we can consider the most basic. This is a continuing narrowing of opportunities for the Bahamian populace, and will provide a negative impact on income and wealth equality," Mr Rider said.
Comments
Gotoutintime 6 years, 9 months ago
Guess we are just a bunch of dummies??
sheeprunner12 6 years, 9 months ago
To work teller for minimum wages??????? ........ This what these white people think of us for real.
JackArawak 6 years, 9 months ago
You're both wrong........a D- average will not cut it. LOP failed the people when he "Bahamianized" the teachers in this country......we have raised more than a generation of sub standard students since then. Almost every business in The Bahamas is faced with this difficulty. It will not get better for 20 years, and that would be a best case scenario.
Sickened 6 years, 9 months ago
And that's if we started now... which you know ain't gonna happen. We got probably 25-30 years until we get a graduation class we can be proud of. BUT that still means that the vast majority of everyone over 20 at that time will most likely be total morons AND running the country. We may have already reached the threshold where, like in the animal kingdom, a species cannot recover.
birdiestrachan 6 years, 9 months ago
This man and the outspoken QC are on the same page. they do not think much of Bahamians.
bogart 6 years, 9 months ago
Bank policies are set by the bank itself and bank along with its best lawyers, accounntkants hires or pays for what it gets. SIMPLE.
For instance in Tribune article Wednesday, 17th January, 2018 by Nico Scavella '"Clerk gave bank more than her annual salary" the article has the annual salary as $32,310 and the portion that relates a FINCO mortgage of some $104,500 with monthly payments of $1295.92 Gross? monthly salary 32,310/12 =2,692.50 Now with average debt service ratio of 45% this case this would be 1295/2,692.5= 48% and this does not even add other mandatory deductions like NIB which would make debt service ratio even higher! and raise concerns over the numbers involved. This is just an observation on general bank policies and from figures mentioned in the article. All falls back on how muvh yru are willing to spend so dont blame Bahaiams education at the bottom, blame top mansgement and your colleagues in their fancy offices.
SP 6 years, 9 months ago
How many qualified bank employed individuals were laid off over the last 10 years? What university students and/or graduates are foolish enough to waste time working in the volatile, unstable, bank or hotel industry?
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
Indeed. Better to apply for a job in the Bahamian Space Program. Sounds like exciting work.
bogart 6 years, 9 months ago
The govt apart from looking abroad should also look at how many bank tellers have masters degrees, bachelors, law degrees, criminalist ,engineer, ddgree, etcetc starting salary 18k pa.
jamaicaproud 6 years, 9 months ago
You all should not allow these people to come in and insult you with nonsense. The woman who sells mangos or tomatoes. How does she calculate her sales? As for Exchange rate, do not let them do what they did to Jamaica, force the country to devalue the dollar so they can pay slave wages relative to what is paid in Canada.
If University degree is a criterion, fine, but he should not insult your country.
Aegeaon 6 years, 9 months ago
At the same time. He's speaking truth, there's no Bahamian left to recruit into higher level bank positions, and even if you find one of them, they're already living abroad and have a good position in a bank in that country, and there are many qualified Bahamians wishing to escape the country. Because if you tried to work here, you'll get screwed over hard.
PatMac 6 years, 9 months ago
These comments look bad but the reality is this has been going on in banks for many years and not just foreign banks ... Bahamian banks too. Part of the reason is that many more Bahamians are getting degrees and persons with degrees and no experience have had to take entry level positions in order to get experience. Once that started the banks made the obvious decisions to increase the minimum requirements because more and more college graduates were applying for these entry level positions to get their feet in the door. Now that this train has left the gate it's hard to stop it. And I believe we all know that it's really hard to find good help. Those of us who have had to hire people certainly have experienced the challenges. Successive governments have recognized this challenge and have tried to some degree to address it. We still have a long say to go to help our young people prepare for the challenges of the work place.
bahamian242 6 years, 9 months ago
We need to look at how many Canadian Business have come to the Bahamas in the Past 50 years and have gone belly up???
Dawes 6 years, 9 months ago
Repost from other story AS usual if a foreigner says something that we decide is bad about the Bahamas we tear them down. We have all said, on this website, at one point or another that there are serious issues that need to be addressed. Now this man says it, instead of listening to the message we would rather shoot the messenger. If one of the top people at perhaps the largest bank in the country says these are the problems he faces, we should listen, as all the other banks will be saying the same thing.
But no lets continue to say how bad he is and how he should leave as we don't like the message, whilst we continue to churn out huge numbers of under educated children who are on the verge of becoming adults.
TalRussell 6 years, 9 months ago
Ma Comrades Foreigner Bankers @ RBC, I writes to you from a far distance since you no longer have much, if any, senior management presence left in the Bahamalands.... Tis only after you've remitted BILLION Dollars CASH to Canada - you does comes up with- earn a university degree to qualify get a minimum wage job at RBC (Bahamaland)..... and according deputy pm KP, this formula won't need more than handful natives to work it. RBC (Canada), can kiss AS OF TODAY a now PUBLICLY redefined by RBC, as {LOWER CLASS} natives, asses.
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