IT IS BECOMING absolutely necessary that policymakers and planners be provided with an assessment as to the major economic initiatives that are taking place within a specific sector, that might impact that sector’s ability to create meaningful employment opportunities.
For instance, there might be a plan in the tourism sector to build and complete a number of luxury hotels within five years.
This is an economic decision which would likely have a direct impact on the creation of jobs for persons in a wide range of areas. Discussions and dialogue would then need to occur to assess whether such a diverse set of skills can be supplied locally, or whether any specific skills sets would need to be sourced from overseas and in what quantities.
As another practical example, a decision may be taken by a multinational company to establish a high tech processing plant in Barbados, a decision that would have clear cut costs and benefits to the economy of Barbados in terms of the payment of taxes, the building (or rental) of work space, the transport of machinery, equipment and raw materials, the usage of local inputs and resources etc.
In this case, decisions would need to be made as to whether Barbados could adequately supply the skills sets that would be needed to effectively manage such a plant.
It would also need to be determined whether local training institutions could provide prospective students with internationally recognised certification that would enable them to find work in such an operation.
It can be argued that whether they pertain to the generation of employment opportunities, the provision of training opportunities, or to the sourcing of foreign skills sets that cannot be found in Barbados labour market, there are a myriad of employment issues that are inevitably dependent on economic programmes and policies being pursued at the national level.
These issues have been aggregated into five distinct policy pillars: creating employment opportunities, enhancing labour supply, promoting equality and equity in the labour market, and building a stronger workforce through information cross-cutting issues.
To objectively evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the various programmes included in the employment policy, a specialised subcommittee of the Social Partnership could be established that comprises six representatives, with two each being chosen from Government, the employers and the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados.
This partnership would not only formulate key performance indicators to objectively assess the entire policy, but would also meet once every quarter to review the contents of the policy and highlight any programmes that were not being implemented.
The committee would also meet with those agencies responsible for the implementation of each programme to obtain a better understanding of their mandate, their work programmes and challenges.
The findings, whether positive or otherwise, would then be reported to the wider Social Partnership, where recommendations for addressing failing programmes could be discussed.
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• Taken from the National Employment Policy of Barbados 2014, prepared by the ministry’s Manpower Research and Statistical Unit.
