The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

The Minister of Labour, Hon Dion Foulkes, in a news story in The Nassau Guardian this Tuesday reportedly stated that there are a number of issues relating to Bahamian workers lacking skills and skills they really ought and need to have a greater opportunity to be employed. He indicated that this “is a very serious issue”.

He noted that as early as 2012 there was an IDB report identifying some of the same issues, that is the need for specific skills, soft skills, numeracy and literacy skills. We are now in 2019, the question is, what is the Minnis government doing about it and what has it done about it over the past two years?

According to the story, the Minister acknowledges that the situation is serious but also that, “the government of The Bahamas is extremely concerned about the lack of skilled Bahamians to take advantage of certain jobs in The Bahamas”.

It is surprising that the Hon Minister did not mention any solution to what he described as a serious matter and one that the government of The Bahamas is “extremely concerned about”. Not only did he not offer any solution, he offered nothing that the Ministry was working on or doing now to effectively deal with what is a serious matter as he described it.

No solution is mentioned, no remedy is mentioned, no mention about a plan to deal with the issue and no mention of what is being done now by the Ministry to improve the situation, today or tomorrow. Has the Hon Minister thrown-up his hands? It surely seems that way!

VERY DISAPPOINTED

Nassau

May 16, 2019