Black Immigrant Daily News

The Global Services Sector (GSS) is boasting a 270 per cent increase in the number of jobs created over five years, moving from 17,000 in 2016 to more than 46,000 jobs that were created in 2021.

This was disclosed by Acting Deputy Director at the HEART/NSTA Trust, Dr Marcia Rowe-Amonde, at the GSS Apprenticeship Programme Graduation Ceremony for Batch Two trainees, on November 3, at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), in Kingston.

Dr Rowe-Amonde pointed out that the growth was due to an increase in the number of firms in the sector, making it the fastest-growing employment creator in Jamaica.

The acting deputy director reported that the sector has made stellar contributions to the economy.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, it remained buoyant, and we recognise the important financial contributions that it has made to the economy from US$400 million in 2016 to where we are now, US$900 million when this figure was reported earlier this year,” she said.

Dr Rowe-Amonde highlighted that the sector has not only made marked contributions, in terms of revenue generation, but it has also been key in providing employment opportunities for Jamaicans.

The sector, which started with 143 apprentices, now has more than 3,400, which she said is “something that is really good and of value”.

“The GSS is being repositioned for young people and adults to get decent jobs in which they can thrive and contribute to the country’s economic growth and productivity,” Dr Rowe-Amonde said.

“As the main driver of human development in Jamaica, we want to recognise and appreciate the contributions of the GSS to nation-building over the years,” she noted.

Dr Rowe-Amonde said the HEART/NSTA Trust is proud to have partnered with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce on this initiative, which resulted in the upskilling and empowerment of Jamaicans.

“This partnership is very important, and I want to say thanks to my colleagues who have been a part of this journey. We have worked with the Apprenticeship Programme by monitoring and assisting with the implementation and contributed to making the programme a success,” she said.

“We will continue to be partners in this. We are committed to helping to reposition the sector for it to be a driver for economic growth, providing young people and adults with decent jobs,” the acting deputy director added.

A total of 119 trainees graduated from the GSS Apprenticeship Programme in November, in addition to the 114 trainees who graduated earlier in September.

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The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) is seeking to explain the island-wide electricity outage that took place on Monday, November 7, when the power went out at approximately 10:15 a.m. for a little longer than an hour.

APUA confirms that its electrical network experienced a total system collapse; and, based on a preliminary assessment, a fault on the 69KV line between Crabbs and Lavington Substations caused the issue.

Reportedly, the affected section of the network was isolated; however, all online generators tripped offline, leaving the entire island without APUA-sourced power.

However, the Authority says, “once conditions were safe, power was restored to the entire island by 11:35 a.m.”

It claims that further investigations are being carried out to determine the cause of the fault on the 69KV line. Further, it says, mitigation measures against the recurrence of this type of fault are being considered.

The APUA Electricity Business Unit is apologizing for the inconvenience caused and thanks the public for its patience and understanding during the outage.

However, home-owners in St. Peter tell REAL News they are “fresh out of patience with APUA and their electricity story.” They say their area was without power late Sunday night and, again, late Monday night into Tuesday morning.

“This on-and-off business is no good for our appliances. The fridge took so long to come back on, and the generator ran dry overnight,” the woman of the house complains.

“Tell APUA that people cannot afford to be replacing their things. Tell them the gas price is still high. Tell them that crime is still high, and we need our lights to stay on. It is too much and too often, now,” she declares.

“Nothing running right in this place!” her husband adds.

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The TT Electricity Commission (TTEC) will have discussions on long-term solutions to resolve the recurring problem of power outages in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

The statement comes on the heels of a power outage that affected about 10 per cent of customers between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Corporate communications manager Annabelle Brasnell confirmed that at 10.05 pm on Monday and 2 am on Tuesday, TTEC experienced faults on its system, stemming from issues with several generator units of one of the independent power producers (IPPs). This triggered something called an “underfrequency scheme,” designed to avoid back-to-back outages to the same group of customers.

As a result, the system automatically shed customers in Trinidad to match the reduced capacity. Homes across the island including areas such as Diego Martin, Curepe and El Dorado were affected.

Brasnell said TTEC instructed the other IPPs to increase output to its full available capacity and to make standby generation available.

In both instances the power outages lasted 35 minutes and 26 minutes respectively.

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The General Secretary of the Unity Workers Union (UWU), Caswell Franklyn is asserting that he nor his union sought out the employees of the Sanitation Services Authority (SSA).

In fact, on the contrary, staff approached him to seek alternative representation.

The workers contacted Franklyn over the past week to convey their dissatisfaction with the union currently working to represent their demands, wants and needs.

“Last week I was contacted by a group of people from Sanitation complaining that they are not being well represented by the NUPW [National Union of Public Workers] and they asked that I meet with them. I did meet with them on Sunday – a small delegation.”

He said that their initial meeting at the end of October seemed to have catapulted the Board of Sanitation into action because it is believed that the SSA Board wants to see the NUPW retained as the union working with the SSA employees. Franklyn posited, “They have a nice working relationship [with NUPW]. Nothing happens but they pretend that something happens and the workers suffer.

“The workers have gotten wise to that and they have asked me.”

Up to November 2, Franklyn had 15 completed forms from SSA staff and had communication that several more were getting on board “quickly”.

After the meeting with the SSA Board on Wednesday, Franklyn met with more SSA staff across the street from the headquarters.

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Rédaction web

Ce mardi à Paris, Alexandre ROCHATTE, Ary CHALUS, Guy LOSBAR, et Jean-Louis FRANCISQUE, ont signé la feuille de route détaillant le plan d’actions prioritaires à mettre en œuvre, ainsi que les contributions respectives des acteurs dans le cadre de la structuration du SMGEAG.

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