Tertiary Education Minister: T&T suffering from brain drain

Government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually in tertiary education, but employers are still complaining about a shortage of skilled and qualified workers in T&T, Tertiary Education Minister Fazim Karim said yesterday. “Every year, over 7,000 graduates leave our tertiary education institutions, yet employers in critical sectors which drive our economy and provide essential services complain of a shortage of appropriately skilled and qualified workers.

While the Government continues to remain committed to GATE and HELP programmes at an annual cost of $700 million, we must set in place mechanisms to ensure that higher education programmes are responsive to the Government’s strategy for economic development,” he said.

Karim spoke at yesterday’s signing of a memorandum of understanding between Georgetown University and the University of the West Indies (UWI) for development of a Workforce Research and Development Centre at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Dock Road, Port-of-Spain.

The research centre, to be housed at the UWI, St Augustine, is almost 80 per cent completed, and will help identify future labour market needs of key industries. Karim said one of the main reasons behind the Centre for Workforce Research and Development is to capture trends in the world of work.