High-demand skills not enough to satisfy labour market

MANAGER for student services and development, placement and career services at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Dr Merritt Henry, says the number of people graduating from tertiary institutions with high-demand skills is not enough to meet the demands of the local labour market.

“… We are preparing job seekers with skills an competencies that are demanded, but not enough…there is a disconnect between what the employers would want to have and what secondary and tertiary institutions are sending out…but it is not that we are not preparing these persons,” Dr Henry told yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston.

She was among a team of representatives from the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) Limited, who spoke on the issue of whether the education system is equipping youth job seekers with the skills demanded by employers.

Dr Henry noted that oftentimes there are requests from organisations for people trained in aspects of accounting, IT, animation and aspects of social media, but some of those requests cannot be filled. Read more

Source: Jamaica Observer