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Almost 300 Jobs, 127 coming seeking work, says Labour Commissioner
#TurksandCaicos, November 5, 2021 – There are more jobs available in Turks and Caicos than there are people to fill them, and this was again laid bare at the recent ‘pop up’ job fair hosted by the Employment Services Department, which welcomed major employers with nearly 300 positions available. The Department reported that it logged 127 people turned out on the hunt for work; they were good candidates but not nearly enough to cover the need.
“I think in some instances we do struggle to find the skillset locally so it wouldn’t be fair to say that it is across the board, there are some positions for which you can definitely find the talent locally and the ones thing as someone who works in Human Resources, that I am constantly reminded of is that you can hire the personality and always train the skill. There are some positions of course, where there is a requirement for skill from the onset and in those instances, sometimes we don’t have a choice but to look elsewhere.
Sheeba Wilson, was one of the many Human Resources Manages who came fully prepared to recruit. Wilson, is also a motivation speaker and life coach and shared that even if companies are fortunate enough to pull talent from another in country entity, it still creates a void.
“So, I think that the approach that the government has been taking in terms of looking at what skills are lacking and trying to get scholarships for those particular areas is a good one, but it is going to take some time to build up to that pool of talent. And I encourage employers to, with the younger persons, bring them in as interns. We have many success stories of persons who started out as interns and have grown in the industry and that could be in any industry. That’s an approach we can try to take to assist…”
This low showing was however not discouraging. In fact, most companies were beaming about the opportunity and some found what they needed with the hope that the Department could turn the Job Fair into a quarterly event.
“Today was a very successful day for us as a team. We are actively looking to hire a number of persons I various
The caliber of candidates presenting themselves for the jobs at the Job Fair held on Friday October 29 at the Down Town Ball Park in Providenciales, was impressive to the HR teams on site.
“Pleased is an understatement. This has worked out very well for InterCaribbean Airways which has some 64 job openings according to Mrs. Gibson.
Edwin Taylor, Labour Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands confirmed there were nearly 300 positions being offered by the companies at the Job Fair, which opened from 10am to 2pm. In an open air environment, with tents, tables and chairs provided by the Department, anyone who needed work or wanted to consider a career change was invited to come out.
The rush came early, and was a good mix of male and female, mostly younger and a few older job seekers.
“We were able to actually find some really good candidates. One thing that stood out were the smiles. We hire personalities,” said Sheeba Wilson, Group Director of Human Resources, Grace Bay Resorts, adding, “You can always train the skill but it is important for the person to come with the right attitude and to have that warmth that is required in hospitality. We found a lot of that today and so it’s now just going back and going through who were the stand-out candidates and just contacting them to meet with the various department managers.”
Wilson reminded that tourism high season is approaching and the Job Fair provided a “perfect” environment to connect with fresh talent.
“I think it was actually a good balance between male and female and in terms of the generations, I think most of persons were younger people between the ages of 18 to about 35.”
Leading grocery store chains were on site namely: Graceway Supermarkets and Sunny Foods; a local beverage company, Turks Head Brewery needed five new staffers. There were jobs in the aviation industry with interCaribbean Airways and TCA Handling; security firms with some 60 jobs open including WCCS were on site; the health sector had the TCI Hospitals and leading resorts like Hartling Group, Ritz Carlton, Grace Bay Resorts, Turks and Caicos Collection and Beaches Resort Villages & Spa stayed for the full five hour function.
“The island has been busy throughout this year and so it has really been hard trying to find talent so I am glad that the Employment Services Department took the initiative to put this on and to give employers the opportunity to come to the people; we were able to scout and find those personalities and further development them,” explained Wilson.
There were 17 companies at the Employment Services Department Job Fair.