Dear Editor,
Last Saturday a contingent of GoG and Private Sector officials flew to New York to conduct a Job Fair/Job Recruitment event. Should a parliamentary committee hold hearings to examine whether expenditures for this event measured against the results are worth it? In other words, is this really a junket for gov’t officials? Political and Social Activist Leyland Roopnarine said the exercise was a waste of time and a failed experiment. Dr. Tara Singh, who does PR duties for the gov’t, has justified the event. Dr. Singh had also previously sanctioned the Goal Scholarship program. (See their letters in SN letters column – July 30th and 31st).
Dr. Singh said 300 applicants applied for jobs by way of formally submitting resumes etc., Leyland on the other hand said there were no more than 50 people at the event. Leyland said the event was dominated by long speeches on Guyana’s infrastructural projects and development goals, little or no specificity of job vacancies, job descriptions; only generalities like “Guyana needs welders, plumbers, electricians, brick layers as well as doctors”.
Recruiting welders, plumbers, electricians, brick layers in New York? In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the vast majority of students attended academic High Schools, barely 5% were enrolled at Gov’t Technical Institutes whose curriculum were centered on technical and trade courses – electricians, mechanics, surveying etc. So, there was a bias in favour of academic learning as opposed to trade courses. If this bias has not yet been corrected, then the government should focus on fixing that problem. More than 65% of student intake at University of Guyana and Gov’t Technical Institutes should be enrolled in science, trade and technology courses, less than 35% in Liberal Arts.
I imagine today GTI would have expanded with campuses in all towns and regions of the country, and their curricula would now include courses in petroleum engineering, solar panel technology and other courses in demand for an economy on the take-off stage. (In Singapore, business leaders and the government collaborate to design curricula). In NYC, 25% of all High Schools have been redesigned to be both academic as well as Vocational and Technical. Courses include electricity, plumbing, solar panel technicians, aircraft mechanics, computer hardware and software etc. If Guyana’s High School curriculum has not yet been restructured to keep up with the demands of an economy on the take-off stage, it needs to hurry up. The same must be said for GTI.
Why New York . . .to recruit plumbers, bricklayers, technicians? Per capita income here is $75,000. What is the meaning of this statistic? New York is a high-priced labour market. Try recruiting unskilled (farm labour); semi-skilled (technicians, handyman); skilled (engineers) in India, Thailand – places where there is an abundance of labour at a fraction of the cost in New York?
There is an important lesson to learn from Israel. When the war broke out last October 7th, the world learned there were thousands of farm labourers from Thailand working, growing food crops in Israel earning good pay. What is the lesson for Guyana’s economic planners? Israel is a high-priced labour market (per capita income $53,000) – all their working age citizens are employed in high tech companies; no one to do farm work, so they recruit them cheaply from Thailand and some countries in Africa.
Time to wrap this story up, before it exceeds the 750-word limit. The take home lesson: (1) Train welders, plumbers, solar panels technicians, bricklayers at your Vocational High Schools and Technical Institutes; (2) If you need to recruit from overseas, go to low-income countries like India, Thailand. The last place you want to go is New York.
I think Leyland got it right. This whole concept of a Job Fair/Job recruitment in New York was a bad idea. I think it was conceived as a junket for govt officials. As for Dr. Tara Singh, well, he will always be known for what he does best, a spin doctor for the government. He should be reassigned to set up Vocational & Technical HS and/or redesign GTI in Guyana.
Sincerely,
Mike Persaud
