Chairman of MIC Institute of Technology, David Lee, says skilled workers seeking employment would be looking for pay that is commensurate with their skills, and not for less.
Lee, who chairs an institute that provides training in manufacturing technologies, was commenting on the issue of the labour shortage which some business owners complain is hampering their production and the high salaries that must be paid to attract labour needed to operate their businesses.
MIC graduates are employed in the tourism sector, construction sector and the industrial maintenance aspect of manufacturing and energy sectors.
Lee said skilled workers seeking employment would be looking for pay that is commensurate with their skills, and not for less.
Last week Wednesday, MIC signed a MoU with the University of Southern Caribbean (USC). The signing would give MIC students more options since they would benefit from degree programmes offered by USC, and the students attending USC would have the options of the tech/voc programmes provided by MIC.
The Institute of Technology produces 3,500 graduates per academic year at 12 institutions in T&T.
According to its Web site the locations are: Macoya (3), Laventille, Moruga, Borde St, Port-of-Spain, Mount St Benedict, Sangre Grande, Ste Madeleine, Pointe-a-Pierre, Point Fortin and Signal Hill in Tobago.
Products and services which MIC produces include:
�2 Steel rule dies
�2 Heat treatment services
�2 Press tools new & repair
�2 Contract press services
�2 Precision parts new & repair
�2 Blow moulds new & repair
�2 Injection moulds new & repair
�2 Machine reconditioning & repair
�2 Jigs and fixtures
�2 Prototype & Special Machinery
Explaining the qualification a MIC graduate must have, Lee said: "They come out with a higher level certification as opposed to somebody coming out of school, because the MIC graduate is trained as a technician certification. It really is dependent on the wage offering of what the labour market or the employers are asking."
There is full employment in the semi-skilled type of labour, he said.
'When you hear the hue and cry for shortage of labour, it is really the KFCs, the Subways, the unskilled market. When you look at the high-end restaurants, they are fully supplied."
With certification comes expectations of good pay. Offering a suggestion for the labour shortage, he said, it may be because job seekers are not getting the experience they require.
"Really and truly what is happening in this day and age is the 'microwave' concept. Before you can demand a decent pay, you have to get the experience. I think that is the dilemma that the nation is going through with the youths. How do you balance that waiting period of gaining the experience to be able to command a higher salary."
Graduation ceremonies are a form of sourcing labour.
"We have started to invite the potential employers to be part of that graduation to set up windows of opportunities to be able to recruit right on board. It's a one-stop shop as you get the graduates and you have the potential employers."
Lee is satisfied that tertiary education provided by MIC is demand-led.
"MIC works with the manufacturing sector to see what their needs are, the type of training they would require. We have tweaked our training to suit the kind of potential employee that they would be looking for. So the time period between waiting for the graduate to get experience and receiving a higher salary is cut down," he said.
Lee is a businessman by profession.
"One of the businesses has been in shipyard, especially in the skills sector where I have employed more than 500 employees ranging in skills such as: welding, electrical, plumbing. From that perspective that has been my experience working with trade/skilled people."
He added that MIC is the first accredited tech/voc institution in T&T and the Caribbean.
Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim, who also attended the signing of the MoU, said the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme would not be removed and would stay in order to support training and development of people.
"I did indicate what we want to do is improve on the efficiency of the GATE programme so more people can participate. We have implemented in some institutions a grade point average which never existed before in some institutions.
"There must be a minimum GPA of 2.0 for further study. That ensures that we build into the system a potential for people to excel and to maintain a certain level of performance.
"If they drop below that, we have opportunities in all institutions to make sure there is remediation of study. Our desire is to ensure we increase the graduation rate and we increase the employment rate."