With a number of jobs cuts having already been announced and more to come in what is shaping up to be a gloomy year economically, yesterday's Gleaner story on the continuing high demand for some categories of workers is highly instructive.

In 'High demand for skilled workers', University of Technology placement officer Diane Lowe said there was still a strong demand for persons skilled in accounts, finance, building construction, nursing and pharmaceuticals. Tom McArdle, HEART Trust/NTA senior director for planning and project development, was also quoted as saying there was a strong demand for certified construction workers, trainers and teachers, technicians, retail sales workers, drivers and dispatchers, health-care workers and customer-service workers.

McArdle added that the local economy "almost always needs barbers and auto mechanics, clerical workers, household workers, plumbers and website designers".

Of course, there are those who would turn their noses up at some of these professions, not only because of a lower income level, but also because of the perception that a less than, stellar intellect is required to perform the tasks involved. And these are generally hands-on tasks, requiring a certain amount of elbow - and other kinds - of grease.

Inferior to 'office work'

It goes back to a notion that those who can, will have to do what those who can do better won't have to do; that work with the hands is somehow inferior to 'office work'. It is a bias that once afflicted those who went to the technical high schools and which was one of the defining differentiations between the University of the West Indies and the then College of Arts, Science and Technology, now the University of Technology.

For, as families have sought upward mobility children perceived as 'bright' have generally been pushed away from technical, hands-on areas into careers which have raised their profile, but not, in these recessionary times, necessarily their marketability. Hence, we may find an incongruous situation where many a 'bright' child finds himself or herself on the redundancy list, whereas those who were considered less intelligent find that they literally do not have sufficient hands to provide their service.

The recession, we hope, will ease sooner than later. However, this lesson about what skills are perennially marketable will, we hope, last, even when the economy is once more on the upturn as we rethink what education is and what it should equip persons to do. As McArdle pointed out, "The local job market is moving towards a post-secondary and tertiary profile for its requirements, meaning, workers need a reasonable secondary set of qualifications along with technical and vocational or professional training." We do feel that tertiary education is still the way to go for those who are willing and able to get to that stage, but along with the technical or vocational training.

For, a person with that skill set will be able to not only help himself or herself and save money in the process, but also establish and run highly efficient businesses and create employment in the process.

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