Black Immigrant Daily News

This week’s featured development as Newsmaker of the Week just ended is the disclosure that major businesses in Jamaica are struggling to fill job vacancies.

This is largely due to the unwillingness of workers to return to jobs they lost at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic for the same levels of compensation.

The issue of Jamaica’s labour shortage was highlighted in April of this year when Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that Jamaica could be forced to import skilled workers as the country is facing a shortage of such workers, especially in the construction and tourism sectors.

A raging debate followed for weeks, with various stakeholders criticising Holness’ position by suggesting that there is no need to import labour, but rather for training to be ramped up by institutions such as HEART NSTA/Trust.

On the flip side, however, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the local labour market, with many persons opting to pursue entrepreneurship, seeking employment in other lucrative industries such as the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector, or turning to overseas job programmes.

Still, the BPO sector, despite grabbing some employees from traditional sectors, including tourism and quick-service restaurants (QSRs), is still facing employee shortages in some areas of operation.

This week, both Thalia Lyn, head of Island Grill, and Phillip Ramson, Managing Director of Chas E Ramson, said they are adjusting their pay packages to attract and keep employees.

“We are having a problem trying to find people to fill all the restaurants, and you can tell all the QSRs (quick-service restaurants) are having that problem,” Lyn disclosed on Tuesday.

Thalia Lyn, head of Island Grill

Lyn, who was speaking during the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s second-quarter business confidence webinar, said her company’s staff complement fell from 900 when COVID-19 struck in March 2020 to “600-plus” at the height of the pandemic.

“We are finally up to maybe 90 per cent, but we still need people now. We find that it’s really hard to find people who really want to work,” Lyn indicated.

According to her, Island Grill offers “good benefits”, and is committed to paying liveable wages.

In admitting that it is difficult to keep up with rising inflation, Lyn said the company has always assisted with meals and kept track of staff transportation costs.

“We make it (the pay) performance-based, so if you come to work on time and you’re not sick or absent all the time, and we have levels of benefits (for the worker),” she indicated.

According to its website, there are 15 Island Grill restaurants locally.

Ramson agreed with Lyn, stating that “finding skilled labour is a challenge”.

Ramson attributed the labour shortage, in part, to the growth in the tourism and business process outsourcing industries.

“Also, I think that people are demanding more because the cost of living has gone up substantially, and people are not willing to work for what they were working for pre-pandemic. As business owners, we have to adjust our packages to reflect the needs of the employees,” Ramson declared.

“Just to get to and from work and to provide lunch for the day, these are things that we have to look into, and this is something we are going to struggle with for the foreseeable future,” he added.

Chas E Ramson, founded 100 years ago, is one of Jamaica’s longstanding food distribution companies.But the employee shortage phenomenon is also being experienced in several countries, including the United States.

That disclosure was made by Don Anderson, CEO of Market Research Services.

Managing Director of Marketing Research Services Don Anderson

He highlighted that in the scenario internationally, workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic have been reluctant to come back to those jobs for the same pay.

“Many of those workers are trying something entrepreneurial, instead of going back to those jobs,” said Anderson.

Two weeks ago, Holness again weighed into the discussion on the labour issues locally.

While indicating that Jamaica is moving closer to full employment, he said this achievement will have implications for several local industries.

“We are now at six per cent unemployment, and that’s edging ever closer to full employment, but full employment in the Jamaican context has a lot of other implications, and already I know that the tourism sector is feeling the effects of it,” Holness stated.

He was speaking at the official opening of the ROK Hotel during a tour of the facility in downtown Kingston at the time.

According to Holness, various sectors currently require employees, and the Government is cognisant of that reality.

However, he explained that in Jamaica’s context, many of its citizens are still not part of the labour force.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness

“It is not the case that every single able-bodied and able-to-work Jamaican is employed. That’s not the case. What is the case is that only six per cent of Jamaicans who have offered themselves to the labour market are without work,” he reasoned.

“… But there are still a significant number who are not formally in the labour force. Some of them are not properly trained, and some of them have just decided that they are not participating,” Holness added.

To address that persistent issue, the prime minister said the Government will continue its efforts to attract more persons to the formal labour force.

“We need them (persons) to support the growth that is taking place and support the continued growth of the construction sector, continued growth in the tourism and hospitality sector, the continued growth in the BPO sector, on which other sectors will grow and add to our diversity,” said Holness at the time.

In adding to that point too, he pointed to the recent outline by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) that the island’s economy grew by 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Holness said it is an indication that despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications of the war in Ukraine, the local economy continues to perform well, and more investments are required locally.

Amid the island’s economic growth, historically low unemployment rate, and a call for greater investments, Jamaican business owners are wondering where will the workers come from to fill the ever-growing list of vacancies.

Social media users also added their perspectives to the raging discussion, arguing, in part, that business owners are to be blamed, as they have not increased salaries for their employees, especially within the context of rising inflation and the increased cost of food.

“These people (business owners) expect workers to work long hours for little bit a money and minimal benefits. Sigh, that’s the result,” wrote Annmarie Hunter, a Facebook user.

Sheldon Reid shared: “Well after two years of lockdown and restrictions, people found other ways of earning”.

Another user of the platform, Sophia Johnson, wrote: “Happy to see this day.

“This is because of (the) way some of these employers treat workers. Out of evil must cometh good. Thank God for COVID. You employers must cash, cook and serve and then clean up… These current business owners only want to make money for themselves.

“Those workers who have found better alternatives, please remember to put aside for rainy days, (and) pay your taxes because school and hospital cannot operate without money, and the other priorities in the country that require money,” said Johnson.

Another social media user, Phyllis Sutherland, said based on her own assessment, many industries, including construction, BPO and tourism, are struggling to get workers like restaurants and food distribution companies.

According to her, there are several “now hiring signs all over the place”, as well as many job openings posted on websites such as Caribbean Jobs.

“(This) shows that some persons who are unemployed are either too lazy or just love handout. It is better to go work your little money than get up every day begging and lay in waiting to rob those who work for their honest bread,” opined Sutherland.

Alvin Reid added his take on the labour issues.

“Blame the Internet and social media. All the young people are into nowadays is being social media influencers. Everybody tun journalists and caan even pass language arts inna GSAT!” he commented.

To the businesses lamenting their plight in filling vacancies, Allison Johnson advised, “Nobody no waa dem deh work deh weh underpay people and have people a work some ridiculous hours.

“Fix the package and let it be more appealing,” she urged.

Sonya LadyLee Allen also advised: “Give the employees better wages for long hours and some benefits… Slavery days dun!”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

rédaction web
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Readers are asked to note that Op-eds do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of Loop Cayman.

By Barbara Conolly, Shadow Minister for Education

An Education Strategy That Adds Up

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” … Benjamin Franklin

The workforce of the future will be more highly skilled than the workforce of the past. Whatever career routes young people aspire to follow, a good education that allows them to develop the skills that the job market will require is essential.

The results that Caymanian students achieve at the end of their high school education are improving. However, we must accelerate the rate of improvement if we are to ensure that our young people are able to fulfil their potential.

The first thing that is necessary is for the PACT government to continue to implement the reforms that were begun by the last two Progressives-led Administrations.

Those two Progressives-led governments finally brought some much-needed stability to the education system and some real vision for improvement. Minister Rivers put in the foundation during the first term to update the legislation and to establish baselines for improvement in schools.

During the second term, Minister O’Connor-Connolly implemented a series of reforms that built upon Minister Rivers’ foundation. Those reforms included changes in the national curriculum and improving the pay and training of teachers so that Cayman could recruit, retain, and develop the high-quality teachers that our students deserve.

There is solid evidence that our programme of reforms is succeeding.

Perhaps the most significant indicator for the long term is that School Inspection Reports confirm that our schools are getting better. That is the key to long term improvement. The round of inspections of our high schools carried out by the independent Office of Education Standards inspections in the Spring of 2021 found improvements in all three schools.

The John Gray inspection rated the school as ‘good’ and identified excellent leadership and good improvement in the quality of teaching which is the most important factor in delivering the improved outcomes for students that we set out to deliver. The Layman E Scott Sr High School on Cayman Brac also achieved a rating of ‘good’ and Clifton Hunter also improved, raising its rating from ‘weak’ to ‘satisfactory.’

While these achievements are the results of a lot of hard work by staff in our high schools, the consistent pattern of improvement demonstrates that improvement was happening because of the Progressives-led government’s national programme.

We in the Opposition have therefore been consistent in offering our support to the Minister of Education as she continues down the path we set.

However, we have also pushed the Minister to make sure that the government rapidly implements the reforms that are necessary. It is for that reason, for example, that I raised questions in Parliament recently about the pace of implementation of the national curriculum and the delivery of improvements in the way that we support early years development.

I will continue to challenge the Minister and to press for delivery at pace of the reforms we know are vital if our young people are to get the best possible start in life.

The best way to judge whether education in the Cayman Islands’ public schools is improving is to look at the results our young people are achieving.

In April of this year, the Ministry of Education released their data report for the 2020-21 academic year. In the report, as well as telling the story of that year, the Ministry looked back at the trends in performance over recent years. Looking across a range of indicators for the level of attainment of our 16-year-old students at the end of Year 11, the report found clear trends of improving performance over a five-year period.

That trend of improvement indicates that results are getting better because of the systematic measures that successive Progressives-led governments put in place.

The trend is encouraging, but a closer look at the data shows there is still much work to be done. The expected national standard at Year 11 is the achievement of five or more Level 2 subjects including mathematics and English.

While there is a clear trend of improvement in the achievement of the national standard, the rate at which this indicator is improving needs to increase significantly if Cayman’s schools are to be regarded as delivering the quality of education that our students deserve.

Students need to get to the standard level, including achieving the necessary levels in English and math, if they are to maximise future job opportunities. Those core skills are vital not just for the digital industries that are held up as being the future for our Islands. They are important skills for jobs in retail, in tourism and in a range of service jobs.

And we know from what employers tell us that too many high skills leavers are still not sufficiently skilled in those core disciplines to be as successful as we all want them to be in their future lives.

The single most important thing we could do would be to drive up levels of attainment in mathematics. Itis clear from the data presented by the Ministry that the key issue holding back overall performance is the low pass rate for mathematics. Improving mathematics attainment levels would improve both the level of national performance and the life-chances of the students concerned.

The data report also shows that the proportion of students achieving five or more Level 2 subjects in any subjects is significantly higher than the proportion achieving five or more including mathematics and English.

In 2021, 59.9 per cent of students achieved five Level 2 subjects but the pass rate of only 43.2 per cent in mathematics held back the level of achievement of the overall national standard to only 40.3 per cent. The current level of broad achievement of five Level 2 subjects suggests that if mathematics results could be improved at a faster rate, then this would have a corresponding positive impact on the overall national standard achievement rates.

It is worth recording that we are already seeing improvements in the level of attainment in mathematics.

We know that not just because Cayman’s own results are improving but because they are getting better when we compare them to our neighbouring countries. Looking right back to the start of the last two Progressives-led Administrations we can see clearly that Caymanian students have improved their performance in mathematics relative to the average for the Caribbean over the last decade. Attainment levels in mathematics in Cayman first went above the Caribbean regional average in 2017 and after slipping back a little have been above the average for the last two years.

This is encouraging and reflects a lot of hard work from teachers and students.

We also know from the data that a significant proportion of Caymanian students are getting close to the expected standard in mathematics but not quite making it over the line. In the 2021 examinations, more than a quarter of Caymanian students (28 per cent) achieved a result in their examinations in mathematics that was only one grade below the standard.

What lies behind those results is that students are not making as much progress in mathematics as they are in English or science. The Ministry’s report presents what is known as ‘added value’ data which compares the actual results achieved by individual students with their predicted performance based on previous cognitive ability tests. The report states that for English and science, students are improving by an average of 1.2 grade points above expectations, but for mathematics less than a half of one grade point is added.

If we could do as well in improving performance in mathematics as we do in other subjects, we could expect a good number of those currently falling just below the standard to achieve passing grades. We owe it to those students to give them the support they need. In doing so, we will also significantly accelerate the national level of performance.

We should expect that over time the reforms being implemented will help to drive up standards. In particular, the new national curriculum and the new teaching and learning methods that will be introduced with it are designed to improve levels of attainment by students. That is why I have continued to press the Minister on implementation of the curriculum.

However, we should not just sit back and wait. If we do so, more Caymanian students will not be reaching their potential. A new strategy to support students better to progress in mathematics during key stage four should be devised and introduced immediately. The strategy should target those students who might need extra support to ensure that they get ‘over the line’ and meet the standard in the Year 11 assessment.

International evidence tells us that beyond the curriculum itself, the most important thing is for teachers to adopt differentiated classroom instruction, flexible grouping, and continuous assessment with immediate intervention for students who were not mastering mathematics standards. This will ensure that teachers give students the individual instruction they need to succeed. Teacher collaboration, within and across grade levels, ensures there is continuity in mathematics instruction which better ensures students progress.

As I have said repeatedly, in the end it is the quality of teaching that makes the most difference to results. Therefore, the new strategy should focus on supporting the development of our teachers.

The first step should be to ensure that Cayman’s high schools learn from each other, and that national best practice is consistently applied across the education system. In 2021, Clifton Hunter’s attainment rate in mathematics, 52 per cent, was significantly better than that at John Gray (35 per cent). It is unclear whether this represents a one off ‘blip’. However, comparison of teaching practice should be made and the best practice across all three high schools should be universally adopted.

Successful international strategies can then be drawn upon to supplement the good practice that is already in our high schools.

In this way we can create a new key stage four mathematics improvement strategy to support Caymanian public-school students to reach their potential. This will give them the best possible chances of success in the future workforce.

The by-product would be a significant improvement in the country’s headline rate of overall achievement in the expected standard of 5 passes, including mathematics and English.

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