The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A RECENT skills gap survey completed by the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute has revealed that 46 percent of employers surveyed say they are unable to recruit local employees to meet their needs.

The survey also revealed that 65 percent of its respondents said the country's workforce is not globally competitive. Meanwhile, 66 percent said there is a lack of available training opportunities in the country.

"The survey that we conducted was kind of based on the 2012 survey… conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank in consultation with the Chamber of Commerce," said BTVI's President Dr Robert Robertson.

"Employers who responded to this survey, most of them were CEOs and most of them were from fairly large companies in the Bahamas and again, it came from all islands so it's not just a New Providence set of data.

"We sent it to approximately 600 potential respondents and we received a response kind of mid-20 percent."

According to the survey, challenges highlighted by respective employers when hiring potential employees included having literacy, numeracy and employee soft skills, being a good team player and being able to solve problems.

A lack of qualified candidates was listed as another challenge faced by employers in the survey.

Comparing the 2019 results to that of 2012, Dr Robertson noted that there were not many differences discovered.

"The survey in terms of the comparison to 2012 is kind of similar, but a little worse so that gap didn't actually narrow in the last eight or nine years. It basically stayed the same or in fact actually gotten worse," he said.

Also speaking at yesterday's town meeting on the skills gap survey was Education Minister Jeff Lloyd, who noted the importance of narrowing the country's skills gap in this ever evolving era.

"The National Development Plan, in its draft form, identified that this country suffers from a national skills deficit," he said.

"This Bahamas must change its intellectual and commercial paradigms, it's mental orientations, it's educational strategic designs or be relegated to the dust bin of history.

"Therefore, an intentional (and) sustained undistracted pursuit of closing the skill gaps here through trivets and other education enterprises and the expanded social conscious can and will order a beneficial future for this country."

Jobs found to be in demand both locally and globally, as noted by officials, included software developers, labourers, freight handlers, HVAC installers, maintenance and repair workers and welders.

To this, Director of Labour John Pinder said: "It's important for us as parents and grandparents to start to steer our kids in the area or the areas where jobs can be available for them...".