The official launch of an automated electronic system of the Skills Data Bank means that job seekers and employers would no longer have to travel to the Employment Exchange at the Clarence A. Bain Building to obtain labour force information.
During the official launch yesterday at the British Colonial Hilton, Minister of State for Finance, James Smith, said that this fast track initiative will help to answer the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) call to regional countries to develop strategies to address the issue of unemployment.
He explained that the Labour Skills Bank project is of great importance because of the tremendous impact it would have on the Bahamian community on both the individual and corporate levels.
Minister Smith also acknowledged that this programme is important because it is using technology to improve and modernise processing at the Labour Exchange, while at the same time it will provide the government with up-to-date labour force data for analysis of labour market conditions.
"It is timely because The Bahamas is undergoing a period of economic expansion spearheaded by direct investments in the tourism and tourism-related sectors in New Providence and throughout the Family Islands," Minister Smith said.
He added that those investments will create a demand for a variety of jobs and potential employees and employers would now be in a position to engage each other via an electronic Labour Skills Bank, which may prove to be one of the more significant and practical components of the Bahamas Government On-line process today.
Labor Minister Shane Gibson said the new Skills Data Bank enables Bahamians of all walks of life, including trade unions, to register skills, while at the same time enable employers to list vacancies at the Department of Labour. "As Minister of Labour, I am often faced with the challenge of providing work permits to expatriate workers, not necessarily because of the unavailability of Bahamian qualified workers, but because they are not registered with the Department of Labour. Today we bring that registration process into the homes of every Bahamian through computer access."
Minister Gibson explained that the Skills Data Bank is a much-needed programme for the country, as it would allow for the best people to be chosen to fill job vacancies.
He said similar One-Stop Services are presently in some of the Family Islands, namely Grand Bahama, Exuma and Abaco.
The Labour Department's Skills Bank addresses the second phase of e-government; the interactive phase, which means that clients are able to make an application and/or request to a government agency on-line via the Internet and once done, that client could expect to receive some form of feed-back to that request.
Minister Gibson noted that the Skills Bank would also assist potential investors with information needed for their planning process.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Keva Lightbourne
Quelle/Source: The Nassau Guardian, 05.11.2006
