There is a growing fear among students of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus about limited employment opportunities after graduating.
In addition, president of the UWI Guild of Students Damani Parris told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that students were concerned about not being able to get much-needed work experience.
“I can definitely say that the fear, especially as it relates to unemployment after university in certain areas, is growing. It is definitely a fear that as the recession continues, the fear continues to affect many students,” he remarked.
At the end of the first quarter the national unemployment rate stood at approximately 11.5 per cent, according to the Barbados Statistical Service. And each year the university puts out thousands of graduates, some of whom go on to further studies.
Parris said the university was doing what it could to encourage students to become entrepreneurs as the guild let the administration know students’ concerns.
“Concerns such as employment after university and the opportunities available to the student body; these are things we would like to see addressed. We need to have some more encouragement and some more internships, opportunities for job experience.
“These are the critical issues that we need corporate Barbados and the Government to understand are necessary for a student body that is expanding in its numbers,” added Parris.
He said while it would be difficult to have a single solution, “the Guild of Students remains faithful and hopeful” that the student body would be able to see a resolution before it was too late.
Parris, who became president last April, said most students were opting to go on to do their Masters and post-graduate programmes as a means of filling in that period where getting jobs proved problematic.
He said the difficulty finding employment had to do with the fact that university students were inexperienced.
“The argument is that you need experience for certain jobs but the problem is that very often we cannot gain the experience that we need because persons won’t hire us,” said Parris. (MM)
