Nov 25 - GSD Urges Government To Rethink Its Training Policies
The GSD have said that recent comments by Kevin Coyne, Unite’s national officer for Gibraltar that a successful economy requires a highly skilled, highly motivated, professional workforce brings into sharp focus what the Opposition has been advocating.
The Opposition argues that Mr Coyne right because it believes that one of the major ingredients for a successful economy is to ensure that its skills base is properly trained and qualified. Indeed, the GSD notes, this is the position of the British Government, adding that the UK Deputy Prime Minister, in a drive to bring this issue to the centre of political debate in UK, stated last week that those who chose apprenticeship and vocational training will form the country’s “economic backbone”.
The GSD reminds the public that one of their criticisms of the Government’s flagship training policy, the Future Job Strategy, is precisely that it is failing as a training scheme, to provide the necessary skills base which will help the economy grow. It is clear, says the GSD, that the “so-called trainees in the Government’s scheme are not being provided with any formal or structured training.”
In the view of the GSD, it has not seen a “well thought out scheme which enthuses our young” to better themselves in obtaining skills and experience. What the GSD say has been the case is an “unsophisticated, ill thought-out and expensive scheme” which is “stubbornly refusing” to provide our young with the very skills to become, in the words of the Deputy Prime Minister, “our economic backbone”.
The Opposition reminds the public that the Government’s policy formed a crucial part of their “hard sell” at the time of 2011 general election., adding that it was “clearly effective” in securing the GSLP’s very marginal win. The GSD is of the opinion that many young people and their families were, quite understandably, “sold on the idea” that they would be given secure employment at a government company at the minimum wage or, in some cases, at 100% above it.
Quite apart from the broken promises since the election, the stark reality, say the GASD, is that they keep on hearing stories of disaffected youths (and the not so young) languishing in “dead end jobs.”
“We have been critical of the strategy from the start because it would fail to offer much needed skills to develop our economy. I was of course hoping for the sake of our unemployed, youth and the economy in general that it would be a success. All the indications are, however, that this is unlikely to be the case,” said Damon Bossino, the Opposition Spokesman for employment.
“There are many aspects of the Scheme which the Opposition has raised as giving cause for concern. The single fact, however, that the Government should be spending in excess of £48M in one term of office on a scheme which is unlikely to produce a proper skills base for our future generations of workers and therefore economy is a tragedy. With the large capital expenditure being made this initiative should have represented an exciting new development in training for our young, but it has not got off the ground.”
“I have said so in the past and I take this opportunity to repeat it. I urge the Government to re-think its policy and spend the money in a revamped and worthwhile training scheme,” said Mr Bossino.
