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’Unemployment is for who don’t want to be employed’- Hospitality manager
The manager, who has asked not to be named at this time, said she was moved to comment, not in the form of a blog but in a more objective way, having read in the local media about the recently concluded job fair hosted in the First District by Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1).
‘No employment in the VI’
“There is no unemployment in the BVI. Unemployment is for who don’t want to be employed. I didn’t want to blog it but it’s the fact. I am a BVIslander [and] I am in the hospitality industry. I know what is going on. BVIslanders need to change their mentality. That’s what the whole thing is about,” said the woman.
According to the hospitality manager, one of the issues is that persons are not willing to relocate to sister islands to take up employment and business owners are left with no alternative but to bring in labour from outside of the territory.
“There are jobs you know, but the thing is that people are not willing to re-locate. So then you have people from other Caribbean islands willing to relocate and they come in and they are finding employment,” said the concerned manager.
“People in the BVI need to know that there has been a shift in the industry, meaning that people from Virgin Gorda go down to Tortola to work but they can’t get people from Tortola to come Virgin Gorda to work.”
‘Re-qualify yourselves’
It is the manager’s opinion also that persons need to re-qualify themselves to suit the job market in the VI. “The young people need to get re-qualified for what is in the market, what the market is calling for. In this industry (hospitality) we have jobs for chefs, cooks, we can’t find nobody to fill those jobs, boat captains that’s rampant. The young people need to make themselves marketable based on what’s available here. They need to work with what the market is offering,” she added.
Giving the scenario of the 9/11 tragedy in the United States of America (USA) when hundreds of persons lost their jobs, the woman recalled a reporter asking a certified accountant if he was offered a non-accounting job whether he would he accept. “He said yes he was willing to flex. People in the BVI need to be willing to flex themselves, work with what is there.”
‘Make all job opportunities known’
Contacted for a comment on the hospitality manager’s opinion, Hon Fahie said that if such jobs exist within the hospitality industry then persons should make them known to all by contacting all the relevant hiring agencies, both Government and non-Government, “including myself to have those employment opportunities published so that young and old can see them and apply.”
Hon Fahie argued that when the aforementioned is done then and only then can one be able to accurately conclude if what is being said is factual or not.
Asked whether he thinks young people would be willing to accept jobs outside what they had initially studied for, Hon Fahie replied, “It is not a matter of what I think. It is matter of having the employment opportunities in such areas widely circulated and then leave it up to the youth to see if they will take advantage of such opportunities.”
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