Caribbean university students and graduates have been reminded that a tertiary education no longer guarantees employment.
According to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, the recession has now called into question the “20th century notion” that once an individual graduated a job would be forthcoming.
Addressing delegates of the ninth annual Caribbean MBA Conference at Hilton Barbados last Wednesday, he said: “The statistics show that over 13 per cent of unemployed people are graduates of one or [the] other of our tertiary educational institutions.
“As a result we are being forced to redefine education in terms of equipping our people to better understand and succeed in our natural and social environment.”
The Prime Minister stressed that despite this redefinition of the rationale of education, the policy of providing free education up to the tertiary level was not up for negotiation and would not change in the foreseeable future.
He noted that already an increasing number of people in Barbados had been rising to the challenge of creating wealth and employment.
“The message has been widely disseminated that in the new highly interconnected global marketplace, the survival of small economies will depend on spotting and capitalising on those niches for which they have an absolute or even relative advantage,” Stuart said.
He added that while the need for entrepreneurship was rapidly becoming the mantra of social commentators, Barbadians must go beyond analysing the situation.
“The Government of Barbados has continued to provide the infrastructure for economic development and enterprise.
“In our most recent Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, we have strengthened the support systems for the tourism sector and provided incentives for entrepreneurs in an effort to restructure the productive sectors,” Stuart stated.
