Employers urged to give young workers space to develop

In Jamaica’s current shortage of skilled labour, employers are urged to retain young talented workers by nurturing them and providing opportunities to develop their skills within their companies.

This was the view of a panel discussing apprenticeship and training at the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) Manufacturing 360° Conference at the AC Hotel in Kingston on Wednesday, May 8.

Speaking on the theme “Enhancing Manufacturing Skills through the Apprenticeship Model”, 

Tania McDonald-Tomlinson, Director of Strategic Workforce Management (People Operations Division) at the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) said each year the company recruits about 10 graduates of the country’s universities and rotates them throughout various departments for them to get a feel of the entire operation.

“In the technical areas of JPS, we need persons with specific skill sets. We have both internship and apprenticeship with a lot of on-the-job training happening at JPS, and a lot of the training needed comes from HEART NSTA”, McDonald-Tomlinson said.

The HR specialist noted that a group of interns started the popular JPS mobile app. She said during their year of rotation throughout the company “there is so much learning that is transferred to them and from them that you can’t pay for that”.

Meanwhile, Luz Tejada, Commercial Director at CBC & Pepsi Cola Jamaica said the company recently invested more than US$30 million to expand its plant here, and that 14 new engineers and technicians were hired to make the project successful.

“We partnered with HEART and the CMU (Caribbean Maritime University) to get this line up and running two months in advance”, Tejada disclosed.

She said Jamaica was “among the top three countries in the world for the importance of Pepsi, that’s why we continue to invest in Jamaica”.

Commenting on the importance of apprenticeship programmes to the manufacturing sector, Dr Taniesha Ingleton, Managing Director, HEART/NSTA Trust said the ROI (return on investment) was incalculable.

“The firm benefits from higher retention rates because (apprentices) get that experience and hand-holding that as humans we remember…They can also move up quicker in the company and see a career path others may not have seen. They can see the connections across the firm and the different spaces they can move into”, Dr Ingleton said.

The HEART boss noted that the current generation of skilled workers needed to be convinced to stay in jobs, as they have more options including creating their employment using technology. 

“When these young people come into a workplace, they want to see how they are benefiting. We have to resell how our workplaces operate to keep them in the space”, Dr Ingleton said.

Guest presenter at the workshop Dr Daniel Tromans, Head of Service Delivery and Responsible Officer at EAL (part of the Enginuity Group) in the United Kingdom urged companies to invest in people and technology.

“For the apprenticeship model and interns you are investing both your time and your money but in the long term if you get the retention, you’re going to get back that money 10 or 20-fold within their career”, Dr Tromans said.

“Train them (employees) so that they can leave but treat them well so that they don’t want to”, he added. 

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Employers urged to give young workers space to develop | Loop Jamaica (loopnews.com)