Employment News. The Caribbean Diaspora for Science Technology and Innovation (UK) (“CADSTI-UK) is urging the Caribbean Community to tap into the high quality labour market forecasts which are now freely available on the web. Penny Carballo-Smith suggests: “There is too little investment in career guidance for young people nowadays and this is critical in these challenging and fast changing times. We need to understand labour market trends for ourselves.”
Make no mistake – there are a lot of jobs out there. A combination of retirement and new industries creating new jobs is expected to give rise to 13.5 million job vacancies between 2010 and 2020. However, too many Caribbeans are concentrated in sectors which are haemorrhaging jobs, for example, the Public Sector and the Not for Profit Sector.
Health and Education are expected to see a growth in jobs. Sectors such as Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Agriculture, Engineering Construction, the Low Carbon Economy, the Creative Industries, the Digital Economy, Financial and Professional Services, Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals are all key job creators of the future.
And, many of these sectors are short of skills.
The jobs queue. Photo courtesy houstoncommunicationsfair.com
The Edge Foundation reports that British industries are suffering from a shortfall of 40,000 science, engineering and technology graduates each year.
Tech City, the fast growing cluster of digital and technology start ups in East London, is especially concerned about skills shortages. Tech City has already created 30,000 jobs in a few short years and expects to create considerably more in their quest to become the technology centre of Europe.
The government is taking active steps to address skills shortages. This includes setting up 45 University Technical Colleges around the country by 2015 to equip 14 – 18 year olds with the specific skills British industries want and need. http://www.utcolleges.org/.
However more needs to be done. Caribbean parents, educators and community leaders must all help young people to understand the labour market trends and get on the pathways to employment.
For further information, please see the UK Commission of Employment and Skills’ 2012 “Working Futures” Report at: : http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/ukces/docs/publications/evidence-report-41-working-futures-2010-2020.pdf
This is the fourth article in the six part “Jobs and the Future” series by the CADSTI Future Think Project, an initiative of The Caribbean Diaspora for Science, Technology and Innovation (UK). Email: [email protected].
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