Foster

Donald Foster, executive director of the HEART Trust/NTA, has attributed one of the main reasons for Jamaica's low ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) to the country's low levels of worker education and skills.

"The reality is that we will not be able to improve our productivity level and the level of the enterprise unless we have persons who are trained and persons who are competent," said Foster.

He was addressing the 2008 National Productivity Conference on Wednesday, which was put on by the Jamaica Productivity Centre at the Knutsford Court Hotel in St Andrew.

Ranks 86 in the world

Jamaica ranks 86 out of 134 countries on the 2008-09 GCI, which measures the productive potential of nations. It slipped from a ranking of 78 on the 2007-2008 GCI.

Foster argued that there was a direct relationship between the level of education of the population to the country's productivity and competitiveness. He said Jamaica's education index was low, and as a result, its productivity was low.

To support the point, Foster said according to data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, only 25.2 per cent of the labour force was trained. This represents some 319,025 persons.

One point five per cent of the labour force, or 19,150 persons, had a vocation without training as opposed to 8.9 per cent, or 112,175 persons, who had a vocation with certification.

In the professional category, only 9.6 per cent, or 121,400 professionals, had a degree or a diploma, while only 0.4 per cent, or 5,325 professionals, had no degree or diploma.

Foster, however, noted that the situation was being addressed through his organisation, which is projecting to increase its enrolment to close to 120,000 for 2008-09. Persons would be trained and certified in the areas of hospitality, building and construction, commercial beauty care and service, among other areas.

The executive director said that there are also plans afoot to infuse the Technical Vocational and Educational Training into the secondary-school system.

"So that secondary school leavers can leave school not only with their two or 10 CXCs, but also with a certificate of vocational competence in their area of (study)," he said.

The HEART Trust executive director said a committee had already been established to work on the implementation and development of a plan to infuse this programme in the secondary-school system.

Foster stressed the importance of the move as he pointed out that less than 15 per cent of school leavers moved on to higher learning, while the other 85 per cent usually moved on to looking for a job.

"Some 38,000 of them are leaving secondary school with two subjects or less, so can't get into tertiary education," he pointed out. "The good news is the ministry of education is to extend secondary school by two years and to ensure that all secondary school leavers will leave school with their general education certification along with their NVQJ."

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com