– to engage private sector umbrella bodies
Even as chief executive officers of local private sector entities complain incessantly about the scarcity of skills at all levels in the business community, the head of one of the city’s leading business training institutions has told Stabroek Business that in some instances they may well have only themselves to blame for the problem.
In an interview with this newspaper earlier this week, Director of the Brickdam-based Business School, James Bovell, said that while both public and private sector entities have been enrolling employees for training in several of the various disciplines associated with the operation of business entities, the gap between the needs of the private sector and actual investment in training needs to be closed even further. “I believe that more has to be done and that more can be done to increase the levels of trained employees in the business sector,” Bovell told Stabroek Business.
However, the Business School executive told this newspaper that his comment amounts to an “observation” rather than a “criticism” of the private sector since he was aware that there were considerations that inform companies’ decisions with regard to investment in training. “Some employers say that training is a cost that they are not prepared to bear, given the risk that you might lose your trained staff either to migration or to another employer. The problem is, of course, that investment in training amounts to investment in growth and concern over loss of trained employees is not a good reason for not training,” Bovell said.
Both private sector umbrella organizations and major local business entities have for years bemoaned the dearth of skills in critical areas, with most of those skills having been lost to migration. In the state sector, entities like the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco) have had to endure significant financial losses arising out of employees having been sent abroad for training and subsequently taking up jobs overseas.
Bovell told Stabroek Business that while the Business School was already in contact with a number of private and public sector entities and was providing training for their employees, the organization was hoping to engage the umbrella organizations like the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Manufac-turers and Services Association. Bovell said that the objective of this initiative would be to seek to persuade members of those private sector umbrella bodies of the importance of investing in training.
Meanwhile, the Business School director said that part of the objective of the institution was to seek to respond in a practical way to the training needs of both the public and private sectors. Bovell told Stabroek Business that based on the requests the Business School has received for training he has been able to discern that customer service and project management are two areas of particular weakness in both the public and private sectors.
The Business School director told Stabroek Business that the institution was currently working with some of the most recent training material produced by the American Management Association (AMA) and which meets the training needs of the local business community.
And in response to the broadening of commercial and investment ties between Guyana and non-English-speaking countries, Bovell said the Business School had initiated classes for speakers of other languages. “We believe that the business climate can be significantly improved if local and foreign businessmen can communicate more effectively. For the moment we are seeking to respond to the needs of the Chinese and Brazilian businessmen whose presence in Guyana is becoming more and more pronounced,” Bovell said.
