The Ministry of Labour and Social Security recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Montego Bay Community College (MBCC), in an effort to bridge the skills gap and form a sustainable nexus between jobseekers and employers in the western region of the country.
The signing took place at the opening ceremony of the St. James leg of the Ministry’s ‘Labour Department and You’ roadshow, held at the Civic Centre in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay.
Labour Component Coordinator of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Integrated Social Protection and Labour Project, administered by the Ministry, Lyndon Ford, said that coming out of a research done by the Ministry’s Labour Market Information System (LMIS), the findings showed that there are a number of hot jobs in the western region, but employers are finding it difficult to identify the right talents.
The project is therefore geared towards facilitating the job-readiness of candidates through training workshops that build their capacity to craft proper résumés, prepare for interviews and learn how to work in teams.
Mr. Ford pointed out that the MoU is designed to help institutions such as the MBCC to identify training needs and craft solutions to address those needs.
“The partnership will also ensure that students are registered to our job bank (lmis.gov.jm) while improving the cadre and quality of candidates for our registered employers to select from, so that we can continue to address the issues of unemployment and contribute to Jamaica’s productivity and development,” he explained.