The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

DR Robert Robertson, president of the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute, revealed that some 500 certified Bahamians are needed this summer for significant construction projects in the Family Islands.

“We see significant construction coming forward this summer, big construction opportunities,” he said yesterday in Grand Bahama while paying a courtesy call on the Minister for Grand Bahama Ginger Moxey.

 According to Dr Robertson, BTVI expects to offer NCCER certified training for Grand Bahamians to meet the demand for certified construction specialists needed in June.

 “We have been contacted by companies from the United States and Canada looking for 500 certified Bahamians by June 2022,” he said.

 “That is a tight window, but with the schedule we have and the NCCER (National Centre for Construction Education and Research) programme, we anticipate we can meet the demands of the industry by June 2022.

 “I want to reiterate that that is for construction of major facilities,” said Dr Robertson, who indicated that one of the projects is the recently announced Disney project in Eleuthera.

 He said American Bridge, which is doing the construction there, is committed to hiring 350 Bahamians.

 “They are not all going to come from Eleuthera, but some will come from here (Grand Bahama),” he told Ms Moxey.

 Dr Robertson said BTVI in Freeport will soon start a second cohort of NCCER students and hopefully stream them into some of these construction opportunities this year.

 “That is a significant opportunity, and various companies are doing it—not just that one and these people must be certified. These companies coming in want certified construction specialists and we have the way forward to that with high school students in grade 12, but also those who recently left the workforce. And that is one area I will be talking about with the Permanent Secretary (Harcourt Brown) to find those people on this island who need training for those jobs.

 “We are also working with labour on precisely the same point in Eleuthera and Exuma. So, it will be spread around. It is not just coming to Grand Bahama, but certainly it will have a big impact here. We think we are ready for that, and Ms Collie and her team in Freeport are excited about it. We are quite confident we will meet the needs of these big construction projects,” Dr Robertson said.

 He noted the NCCER is a US certification offered primarily by Valencia College. He said that next June there will be an NCCER centre at BTVI.

 “We are not quite there yet and we have to offer it through Valencia College, but we will be,” Dr Robertson said. “We have more than 100 Bahamian trainers.”

 Dr Robertson indicated that US trainers will not be brought in to do any training.

 “We will look at contractors here as well as elsewhere,” he said.

 He said that one of the big Bahamian companies that has adopted NCCER is Baha Mar, which is using NCCER certified employees now who are coming through the BTVI system.

 He said the first part of the programme will be virtual and there will be some travel for hands-on training in boot camps.

 Dr Robertson said they expect to launch a mobile NCCER training facility in Grand Bahama.

 “In Freeport, we are looking to develop a mobile NCCER that would actually take trade training anywhere we want it to go on Grand Bahama—that would be a first,” he said. “There is only one other in North America, and that is at Valencia College, and we are modelling it on their successful application. But we hope to have it operational by summer 2022.”

 Ms Moxey said Grand Bahama is considered to be the innovation capital of the country where a lot of positive programmes are going to be piloted.

 “That is going to allow us to really be able to reach our full potential,” she said, in addition to maritime and logistics, and events and entertainment on Grand Bahama.

 She stated that BTVI has played a key role in Grand Bahama in the industrial sector, helping to train professionals in technical vocational studies.

 “We look to partner with BTVI moving forward to get a lot more programmes going. Many of them, of course, include maritime programmes, and also solar energy programmes. They include what we consider the built environment, and we are looking at models like those in Nova Scotia that we will discuss further about how we can make a campus here that allows us to be able to have diversified programmes for our island. We are also looking at partnerships for our island where we want to work with NGOs, corporate Bahamas, and organisations like BTVI to assist our island and our residents in moving forward.”