The printing and packaging Industry is experiencing a 20 per cent labour shortage, said Dr Clayton Najab, chairman of the Printing and Packaging Industry Council (PPIC). "There is a major scarcity in T&T. You ask anybody in the printing and packaging sector, they would tell you the biggest problem is getting labour and getting good labour," Najab said. He was speaking last Friday at the networking event hosted jointly by the T&T Manufacturers' Association (TTMA) and the PPIC which was held at the President's Box, Queen's Park Oval, Tragarete Road, Port-of-Spain. The labour shortage is so chronic that manufacturers in the plastics sector are "begging for workers." In the meantime, the PPIC has begun a pilot project in plastic extrusion at Mucurapo to train students in the printing packaging industry.
"I have promised all of those who pass the test next year, I would get a job for them, of choice. In most cases, they would have to take a taxi because it is outside of Port-of-Spain. That is to tell you how desperate of a situation it is to get somebody qualified in making plastic bags." Najab said practical training is important so that a student starting his first job with little or no experience can operate sophisticated and complex machines. Sourcing people for employment can be done, but getting people with the required skills for the printing and packaging industry would be difficult.
Najab contends that it's an attractive industry to work in, one which has potential for growth. A trainee can start at the operational level in an organisation and get promoted very quick to management. Already, secondary schools are expressing interest in encouraging students to learn the skills and techniques of plastic extrusion. While he did not want to name the factories, but said there are factories in the South that hire trainees. A certificate from the plastics extrusion programme is awarded, but if there are parts of the programme you are not good at, you will not be certified. The PPIC is also partnering with the University of T&T?(UTT) for training in the plastics industry, Najab said but this has to be done in small steps.
"We didn't want to start an associate degree, get high-priced tutors and have only two people in the class. That doesn't make sense. What we are trying to do is start with small specific courses and encourage companies to send their people to train. Once we have a demand, we would start expanding the course and later on into a degree course, but that is down the road." Another project which PPIC is working on is the establishment of a plastics plant. Consultants from Singapore and the United States have been approached to conduct research to determine whether it is practical for such a plant to be built here. "For a plant to be feasible, the capacity must be 500,000 tonnes or you could do 100,000. The latter is more appropriate for Trinidad," To be able to approach the Government, Najab said: "You must have a study to tell you the costs. Any project you can get done, once you can show the return on the investment.