Minister: Global jobless youth to hit 71M

She said, “This situation poses challenges for families, communities and indeed young persons themselves.” She added that “the importance of having young people constructively engaged, whether in education, skills training or employment, cannot be over-emphasised.” Bapt i s te-Primus made the statements as she delivered the feature address to launch a day-long National Forum on the Future of Work in TT at the Teaching and Learning Complex on the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.

She said the ILO had asked member States to hold such national dialogues on the Future of Work and the outcome of the consultation will be incorporated into a report to the ILO to inform its planning and programming, as well as serve as a guide to the ministry in developing national labour policies and programmes.

Bapt i s te-Primus said, “It is my hope therefore that today’s social dialogue platform will stimulate new ideas, imagination, creativity and thinking outside of the proverbial box. It is for that reason, symbolic though it may be, that we selected a seat of higher learning, the University of the West Indies, for today’s forum.” On the other hand, the minister said the issue of “aging populations and vulnerable groups creates a situation where our policy and programme development must, of necessity, be nationally coherent and aligned to global development goals.” She said among other things, this country had made commitments in the Official Policy Document of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for sustainable economic growth, a clear framework of rights and responsibilities in the workplace and enhanced tripartite and stakeholder engagement.

In a feature presentation, Dr Camille Wardrop Alleyne, described as a space scientist, rocket engineer, writer, educational leader and science ambassador, said that in discussing the future of work, young people must be involved and allowed to say what matters to them and an effort must be made to understand the world in which they live.

The NASA said, “The context of their world is one where technology, connectivity, access to information and knowledge is at their fingertips, so it is not like when we were growing up...theirs is a very connected world, they understand a world in which there is great movement in areas of biology, biotechnology and genetics research.

“There are revolutionary things happening in the area of robotic technology and artificial intelligence, the state of our world with climate change, they understand that we need to look for alternative energy sources and they live in a world where space technology is everyday technology and they are not going to inherit a world without being a part of space technology.” Alleyne, who was born in Trinidad, said it was time for TT and the Caribbean to start thinking about how the region can become part of that sector — developing satellites for the purpose of sustainable economic development.

“And as we talk about all these technical areas and new sectors that we can go into, how do we transform the education system, especially in science, technology, engineering and math to be able to educate the type of analytical and critical thinkers and problem solvers that we need. We also need to incorporate in our education system the tenents of innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship because those innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs are not born, they are often made.” She said that the country and the region need “to be committed to gender equity and parity in these technical fields.”