Nat’l Employers Survey coming

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education would conduct a National Employers Survey, Science Minister Colm Imbert, announced in a statement to Parliament on Friday. Imbert said the survey would be conducted through the National Training Agency and would cost $1.8 million. He said the proposed survey would enhance and complete the Ministry’s existing database of job opportunities and the demand for skills in the country. It would use the methodology employed in a previous survey carried out by NTA for the period June 2003 to December 2003.

Noting that the previous survey covered approximately ten percent of the registered establishments throughout Trinidad and Tobago, Imbert said the National Employer’s Survey would expand its coverage to all companies and state enterprises that currently employ ten persons or more in Trinidad and Tobago. He said the objectives of the survey were:
 To identify all existing vacancies in all the registered establishments, as defined by the Central Statistical Office;
 To classify vacancies according to sector and specific worker categories identified in the Dictionary of Occupations for Trinidad and Tobago;
 To enable the Government to match people to existing vacancies thereby reducing the unemployment rate.

Imbert stated that the survey is expected to be completed over a period of 11 months. The results would be used to inform decisions on employment, training, re-training, scholarships, the emergence of new occupational areas and the degree of growth or shrinkage in the various industrial and commercial sectors. Imbert stated that the MuST (Multi Sector Skills) Training Programme and the Retraining Programme would utilise data emanating from this survey.

Saying that higher education programmes, both at private and public tertiary level institutions, must remain relevant to the local labour market requirements, Imbert stated that the National Employers Survey would thus be invaluable in informing the nature and content of programmes at institutions of higher learning. Imbert noted that a survey of this nature and magnitude which would cover virtually every industrial establishment in the country, and had never been attempted before in this country or within the Caricom region.