Hire our own | Add HLSCC grads to Agency law
Minister of Education, Myron Walwyn
Education Minister Myron Walwyn wants H Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) graduates included in the controversial Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Agency legislation.
Walwyn said if the legislation passes and the Agency is established, the Agency should facilitate jobs and job-training for HLSCC graduates and students during the recovery process.
“I want to see that when the Agency is looking for consultants, the college is right there. The college has more degrees per capita than anywhere in the whole of the BVI.”
“Engage them and use them because they are there. The skills are there [and] rather than taking in everybody from all over the place, let the college make some money,” Walwyn said.
The minister said implementing the UK-mandated Agency is also a perfect opportunity to initiate an apprenticeship programme.
He said under the programme, inexperienced youths would be brought on job sites to learn a trade.
“We have to find a way to see within those regulations if we can pair people with the contractors to learn something and make a little living as well. I want to see that happening,” the minister said.
Walwyn further recommended that a ‘young local’ be selected to be a member of the Agency.
The Agency will have full control over how funds for territorial recovery are spent.
“If we building back this country for them (youth) and they are not involved in it, we have a problem,” Walwyn reasoned.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
the youth need to get up from they lazy a&&.
I watched two older men (70+) clearing the ghut in East End whilst 5 or 6 young men sat in the bar opposite in the middle of the day and did NOTHING. No respect for their elders or pride for their community – it was really sad.
One can tell that election is around the corner
Lets not make this loan more complicated with ideas like this. The economy is crippled, houses and infrastructure are in tatters, tourists are not coming and people remain unemployed while government dithers. Please, get on with it.
This is what American legislators call “earmarks” – every politician trying to tag their own pet project onto an unrelated piece of legislation.
By all means get young graduates involved – hopefully they will learn what our ministers ignore – good governance, accountability, transparency and integrity in projects, quality checks, meeting programmes and good cost control – all the reasons the U.K. Agency has to be involved – otherwise it will be the usual cookie jar experience and failed schemes, sadly that seems to be all the ministers care about – what’s in it for me…
INTERNSHIPS!
How about really investing in HLSCC so it can produce quality! The best of the students dont stay here period. HLSCC isn’t even marketable its run like a high school if that much. Can’t even pay staff so what quality educators it have??
Why don’t the minister hire them? From what I see he have a lot of work permit on staff.
A mere degree does not convey the necessary expertise to be a consultant able to offer realistic and feasible advice. Of course, a great idea to have young folk involved, but the question is do they want to? Or, would it be another way to add more belongers to the already bloated govt payroll?
Whether Belongers or not the government payroll is still rolling out…so why not hire locals as the minister suggests, so that the money at least stays here? That is more sustainable than hiring outsiders, don’t you think?
An education is just the beginning of qualification. Experience is the real qualification. Although I agree that we need to find better ways of getting young Virgin Islanders employed, putting inexperienced personnel in a position of power utilizing public funds is a surefire route to astronomical unnecessary loss at a time where we need to be counting our pennies and spending appropriately.
Your comment is not even suggesting that the young locals can be in training….you just don’t want them hired, period. What’s in it for you? Another expatriate for the jobs available so that the situation keeps getting worse instead of better for locals?
BVIslanders have a hard time making it in their own country, due to all the outsiders coming in and fooling people with their fake credentials and fluffed up resumes. The problem is local employers don’t know what’s real and what’s fake, but they know everything about the locals and that’s a problem: familiarity breeds contempt.
Is We own have we in this mess. So No
“If we building back this country for them (youth) and they are not involved in it, we have a problem”
That’s exactly right. (and the root cause of problems we experiences we have today) the recovery and the future should be for the people, by the people. But this is not a choice. We need thousands of non-nationals here, some for short term and some long-term to make this work.
The skills are absolutely not there but the sentiment perhaps is correct in that the POTENTIAL is there. all of our youth and our working population has potential. We must ensure that they are trained to the highest levels with international best practices and inspired and then they may flourish for generations after the recovery years. In that way, far fewer immigrants proportionally will be required in the economy.
anyone see the 7.2 milli oh plane
Ask the Brats. They turned them away. The Brats claimed entitlement and for that reason they spared no expense in making sure that the VI lost the investment.S– the Brats.