A new computer software system implemented in May is helping the Department of Employment Relations match unemployed people with available jobs.
Speaking in response to a recent Parliamentary Question asked by George Town MLA Lucille Seymour about the DER’s restructuring, Employment Minister Alden McLaughlin said the new software was working very well.
‘The major advantage of the software is that it allows for the efficient identification of skills and competencies, which enhances the job placement process by facilitating the accurate pairing of posts and employee,’ he said.
In the month of August, the DER placed 25 people in jobs, Mr. McLaughlin said.
‘I had one person come to me and say he had six [job] interviews in two days.’
Mr. McLaughlin said he had been hesitant about boasting of the DER’s recent successes because of a staff shortage at the department.
DER Acting Director Philip Scott said last week that there were only three employees currently dedicated to the section of the department that deals with job placement.
In spite of the recent successes, there are still about 200 people actively seeking employment through the department, which gets about an equal number of listings for new jobs each month, Mr. Scott said.
Matching the qualifications of the people registered with the available jobs is not always easy.
‘The challenge is they don’t match,’ said Mr. Scott. ‘The jobs being advertised tend to be a little higher skilled than the people we have in our books.’
Mr. McLaughlin also touched on the subject of insufficient skills in the Legislative Assembly.
‘We’re steering as many young people as we can down the [University College of the Cayman Islands] route,’ he said. ‘We tell them ‘you may need a job, yes, but in the long term you need some skills’.’
Mr. Scott said about 50 people who have come to the DER have been referred to UCCI.
Mr. McLaughlin said young people were beginning to understand the importance of an education.
‘It’s starting to sink in to the national consciousness that education is the key to solving a lot of the problems with employment,’ he said.
Although the new DER computer software cannot match unskilled applicants with skilled jobs, it is working well in identifying the skills applicants have with available jobs. Because of its success in doing this, the DER is starting to get a higher level of job applicant.
‘We are getting some of the higher skilled job applicants coming to us, which is nice,’ Mr. Scott said. ‘Maybe we’re getting a higher profile.’
When people come to the DER looking for a job, they generally leave with potential job interviews now.
‘We don’t have people leaving on the basis of ‘we’ll get back to you’,’ Mr. Scott said. ‘They are leaving with six or seven or eight referrals.’
The DER’s wants to make sure that local people qualified to for job openings get the opportunity to fill those openings, Mr. Scott said. When a company wants to hire a person on a temporary work permit, the Immigration Department – which approves temporary permits administratively – has required companies get a waiver from the DER saying there are no unemployed Caymanians qualified for the job.
Mr. Scott said that in August, the DER did not have to issue a single waiver.
Eventually, the DER will make its jobs listings available to the various work permit boards so they can determine if there is a qualified Caymanian to fill a work permit position.
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