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Skilled Jamaicans and other qualified Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nationals are broadening their access to employment opportunities within the region through the free movement regime.

With the acquisition of a Certificate of Recognition of CARICOM Skills Qualification, which is a provision under the CARICOM (Free Movement of Skilled Persons) Act, qualified persons are able to move and work freely in another territory without the need for a work permit or permit of stay.

The Act was promulgated in July 1997 in furtherance of the provisions of the 1989 Grand Anse Declaration that underpins the advancement of the Caribbean regional integration process through the creation of a CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Since then, Jamaica has adopted legislation that provides for the movement of skilled nationals in the 10 approved categories across the region.

These are university graduates, artistes, musicians, sportspersons, media workers, registered nurses with diplomas or degrees, teachers with diplomas, artisans with at least level 2 CARICOM Vocational Qualification (CVQ), holders of associate degrees, and household domestics with a CVQ level 2. The National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is also accepted in Jamaica.

Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, tells JIS News that while there have been challenges, he is of the view that a workable regime has been designed for the movement of skilled nationals.

He notes that since the regime came into effect two decades ago, 16,000 Caribbean nationals have been issued with CARICOM skills certificates.

These include 3,865 that originated locally, according to Director of the Work Permit Department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), Lisa-Ann Grant.

Ms. Grant notes that of those issued in Jamaica, 3,073 were to locals to work in other territories.

Since the start of the year, 60 Jamaicans and 18 CARICOM nationals have been provided with skills certificates in Jamaica.

Ms. Grant says she is proud of the work that has been done to facilitate nationals gaining employment across the region, particularly university graduates.

“(As) a graduate from the university, traditionally, 20 years ago, I could only seek a job in Jamaica. Now we have a region that is no longer seeing me as Jamaican, but seeing me as CARICOM, so I can apply in a bigger space for employment,” she says.

She notes, as well, that since the category of household domestics was added in 2010, it has allowed more nationals to move as there is a demand for that skill in some member states.

In addition, Ms. Grant informs that persons are moving within the Sandals hotel chain throughout the region. “That’s the good thing; you’re now able to get experiences outside – a different world view,” she says.

Ms. Grant points out that persons can obtain a CARICOM skills certificate without a job offer. “The skills certificate is a recognition of your skills. So, I may have a skills certificate but I may not choose to use it to move. It doesn’t change the fact that I have been so recognised as skilled,” she explains.

“It’s a recognition of your skills, so it doesn’t expire. You can choose to update your skills certificate, because a unique identifier on the certificate is your passport number and for most, if not all jurisdictions, that will expire after 10 years, so you may choose to update your skills certificate with your new passport number… (or) to amend (the information) because you have a higher level of skills,” she points out.

Ms. Grant further notes that once nationals have the requisite qualifications, they can apply for the skills certificate in any member state.

“You are skilled, so you can be recognised in any member state. So as a Jamaican, I can apply for my skills certificate in Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia, Belize, in Suriname,” she points out.

Explaining the process of obtaining the CARICOM skills certificate, Ms. Grant informs that nationals will first need to contact the Ministry’s 1F North Street location and indicate their intention to apply.

Once the Ministry determines that such a person is eligible, he or she will be sent an application form by email, which is to be completed and returned to the Ministry along with specified documents. These are:

• A certified copy of the applicant’s birth certificate.
• A copy of the biodata page on the applicant’s passport, which should be signed by a Justice of the Peace.
• A police report from the country in which the applicant has resided for the last three years.
• Three certified passport-sized photographs.
• Documents indicating a name change (marriage certificate or deed poll documents), if applicable.
• A certified copy of university degree, associate degree, diploma, professional qualifications.
• For employed or self-employed persons, a cover letter detailing the purpose for application.

Once the certificate is issued by the competent authority, CARICOM nationals are granted a stay of six months, and during that period, they are required to submit their skills certificate to the competent authority of the host country for acceptance.

“The competent authority may verify the validity of the certificate and the documentation on which it has been issued. During the period of consideration by the competent authority, the CARICOM national can work,” Ms Grant notes.

For the island of Jamaica, she informs that the verification process involves persons taking in a certified copy of the skills certificate, a certified copy of the biodata page of their passport, three passport-sized pictures, and completing a simple information-gathering form at the MLSS office.

“Once that is done, I will contact the member state. Once it is verified, then we will give you a letter to take to the immigration department where you will be given an unconditional stamp,” she explains.

Ms. Grant stresses that legitimate, bonafide certificates can only be issued by the competent authority.

For Jamaica, this is the Ministry’s 1F North Street location only.

For more information, please contact: Ministry of Labour and Social Security 1F North Street Kingston. Phone: (876) 922-9500-14; Email: prunit@mlss.gov.jm
Website: mlss.gov.jm.

Source: https://jis.gov.jm/caricom-skills-certificate-widening-access-to-employment-opportunities/

An estimated 38,000 Jamaican youth between the ages of five and 17 years old are involved in child labour, and 26,000 work in hazardous conditions, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

These are some of the findings contained in the Jamaica National Youth Activity Survey conducted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) and the ILO, which identified 53,274 children overall engaged in economic activities.

“If you have a six-year-old doing chores for a number of hours a week, it could be considered child labour,” Resel Melville, national coordinator for the Caribbean Support Programme, told The Gleaner yesterday. She was one of two ILO representatives to speak on ‘The Caribbean in the Global Fight Against Child Labour’, during the launch of a weeklong training of trainers workshop, at the Terra Nova Hotel, which ends on Friday.

“We have participants from the National Insurance Scheme, labour inspectors from the Pay and Employment Branch. We have work permit investigators, officers from the Occupational Safety and Health Department, and also investigators from the employment agency at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,” Sasha Deer Gordon, director of the Child Labour Unit in the labour ministry, told The Gleaner, adding that child labour is “really a big issue” in Jamaica.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

The survey defined economic activities as including to:

– Catching fish, wild animals or other food for sale or for the household.

– Helping (unpaid) in a household business of any kind.

– Fetching water or collecting firewood for household use.

– Domestic work for wage or salary or any payment in kind.

WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR?

– Child labour refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful to children and interferes with their schooling.

– The Jamaica National Youth Activity Survey 2016 captured information on hazardous work and child labour other than hazardous work, namely:

– Children aged five to 12 in employment

– Children aged 13-17 years in hazardous work such as employment that endanger their health, safety and moral development.

– The survey identified child labour as a subset of working children and focused only on children ages five to 17, since it is unusual for children under the age of five to start working. The main objective was to collect comprehensive information on children’s engagement in economic activities.

– A child (five to 17 years) is considered to be working if he/she is engaged for at least one hour in the production of economic goods and/or services for pay or profit or without pay in a family farm/business.

Melville explained that the definition of child labour would have to factor in cultural practices, hence the need to sensitise the public to the nuances.

“We are not saying that all child work is bad, because children have to develop discipline. They have to learn skills, they have to engage with social norms and practices, but at the end of the day, we have to be cognisant that there must be boundaries in terms of duration,” she added.

For this reason, protective measures must be put in place to ensure that children are not exploited or forced to work under conditions that damage them morally, physically, socially, psychologically or otherwise, Melville noted, while calling for greater awareness on the issue.

“The truth is that sometimes we see it daily but we don’t recognise it for what it is because we have become culturally insensitive to it,” she stated.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com

Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180703/thousands-jamaican-children-engaged-child-labour-survey

Jamaicans seeking skills certificates to work in another Caribbean territory are advised to submit applications to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Director of the Work Permit Department, Lisa-Ann Grant, said that legitimate, bonafide skills certificates can only be issued by a competent authority.

For Jamaica, this is the Ministry’s 1F North Street location only.

“We are having a serious problem of Jamaicans moving with fraudulent documents. Many persons do not realise that when somebody approaches you on the street that is not the process. All applications must be submitted at 1F North Street… not our offices around the island,” she pointed out.

The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) provides for the free movement of 10 categories of skilled workers.

These are university graduates, artistes, musicians, sportspersons, media workers, registered nurses with diplomas or degrees, teachers with diplomas, artisans with at least level 2 CARICOM Vocational Qualification (CVQ), holders of associate degrees, and household domestics with a CVQ level 2. The National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is also accepted in Jamaica.

Explaining the process of obtaining the CARICOM skills certificate, Ms. Grant informed that interested nationals will first need to contact the Ministry’s 1F North Street location and indicate their intention to apply.

Once the Ministry determines that such a person is eligible, he or she will be sent an application form by email. The applicant is required to submit the completed form along with the following documents:

• A certified copy of the birth certificate.
• A copy of the biodata page on the applicant’s passport, which should be signed by a Justice of the Peace.
(more)

• A police report from the country in which the applicant has resided for the last three years.
• Three certified passport-sized photographs.
• Documents indicating a name change (marriage certificate or deed poll documents), if applicable.
• A certified copy of university degree, associate degree, diploma, professional qualifications.
• For employed or self-employed persons, a cover letter detailing the purpose for application.

All applications must be submitted to the Work Permit Department of the Ministry, along with a processing fee of $2,000.

Processing is carried out within eight weeks, following which the applicant or a representative may collect the certificate after paying a fee of $8,000. A further $2,000 is charged for each dependent.

To have certificates amended, persons will have to pay $2,000, and in the event that a certificate has been lost, stolen or destroyed, applicants will be required to pay $3,000 to replace the document.

Once the certificate is issued, CARICOM nationals are granted a stay of six months in another country, and during that period, they are required to submit their skills certificate to the competent authority of the host country for acceptance.

“The competent authority may verify the validity of the certificate and the documentation on which it has been issued. During the period of consideration by the competent authority, the CARICOM national can work,” Ms Grant noted.

For Jamaica, she informed that the verification process involves persons taking in a certified copy of the skills certificate, a certified copy of the biodata page of their passport, three passport-sized pictures, and completing a simple information-gathering form at the Ministry.

“Once that is done, I will contact the member state. Once it is verified, then we will give you a letter to take to the immigration department where you will be given an unconditional stamp,” she explained.

For more information, please contact: Ministry of Labour and Social Security 1F North Street Kingston. Phone: (876) 922-9500-14; Email: prunit@mlss.gov.jm
Website: mlss.gov.jm.

Source: https://jis.gov.jm/apply-for-skills-certificate-at-labour-ministry-only/

Public Relations Unit

1F North Street, Kingston

Tel: (876) 967-5484

Fax: (876) 948-2831

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Chinese Gov’t Congratulates Jamaica on Economic Growth and Decreasing Unemployment: Both Pledge to Strengthen Bilateral Relations

The Government of Jamaica has been lauded by the Government of China for the current level of growth in the economy, and the steady reduction in the rate of unemployment. As at April 2022, Jamaica’s unemployment rate stood at a 6%, in contrast to a high of 12.6% in July 2020.

During a Courtesy Call on Minister Samuda on September 7, His Excellency Chen Daojiang, Ambassador Extraordinary of the People’s Republic of China to Jamaica, congratulated the Labour Minister on the country’s high level of employment, noting that “nearly every Jamaican has a job”.

In response, Minister Samuda stated that Jamaica’s success is due in large part to the cooperation and support provided by the Government of China, especially in construction and infrastructure development, which he noted, has been “greatly enhanced by cooperation with the Chinese Government”. The Minister further expressed his satisfaction with the level of expertise which Chinese construction and infrastructure companies have brought to Jamaica, and the attendant transfer of knowledge to the Jamaican workforce. The Ambassador noted that up to 96% of the workforce engaged in some infrastructure projects are Jamaican nationals.

Minister Samuda said that he expects the continued “partnership to bear great fruit in the future”. In a reference to China’s underwater highways which he had personally experienced, the Minister commended the Ambassador on what he called the “infrastructural exploits of China” noting that the “technology was unprecedented in the world”.

The Ambassador expressed his pleasure at the state of China/Jamaica bi-lateral relations, and pledged his support to the elevation of the existing relationship toward the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries. He noted that the recently constructed Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT) building and the North/South Highway are “new landmarks of the China/Jamaica friendship”, noting that Chinese nationals were being encouraged to integrate with the Jamaican workers, thereby strengthening their mutual social development. Ambassador Chen Daojiang observed that there are currently more than 60,000 Chinese nationals residing in Jamaica, collectively contributing more than $2billion annually to the country’s social/economic development.

For his part, Minister Samuda confirmed the existence of a large Chinese community in Jamaica over many decades, and remarked that the current work arrangements are likely to increase the proportion of Chinese descendants in Jamaica. He assured the Ambassador of the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring the expeditious processing of Work Permits “for Chinese nationals whose expertise is needed on development projects in Jamaica”.

Chinese nationals are the largest group of international workers in Jamaica, accounting for 40% of Work Permits approved annually.

Ambassador Chen Daojiang noted that 2022 marks fifty years of Bilateral Relations between the peoples of Jamaica and China, and advised the Minister that his government is planning a series of activities to observe the milestone.

(l-r) Permanent Secretary, Colette Roberts Risden, Minister of Labour & Social Security, Hon. Karl Samuda, Chinese Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Chen Daojiang and Mr. Hu Yumin, Deputy Chief of Mission and Political Counsellor of the Embassy, share in a light photographic moment after a Courtesy Call at the Ministry’s Office in Kingston on Wednesday.

Contact: MLSS Communication Unit (876) 967-5484
|Email: prunit@mlss.gov.jm
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