Minister: New programme aiming to cut unemployment

The plans to restructure the National Employment Bureau are coming to fruition.

That is according to Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development, Steven Blackett.

He told those attending yesterday’s launch of the “Strengthening Human and Social Development in Barbados” programme at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, that those changes are being made as part of that new initiative.

His comments came as he explained that one component of the five-year programme being financed by the Inter-American Development Bank is geared towards reducing unemployment. This, he said, would be achieved through improved employment agency-related services and demand-driven technical training. According to the Social Care Minister, one of the main strategies will be to strengthen the role of the National Employment Bureau to function more efficiently with respect to career counselling and in the provision of intermediation services.

“As a result of this intervention, we will witness the launch of a restructured organisation with an enhanced skilled team of vocational counsellors. It is envisaged that the business processes of the rebranded NEB will be more streamlined and there will be advances in the use of technology to impact the operational efficiencies,” he said.

He made the point as he said the aim is to help the NEB to better manage the influx of persons needing their guidance as it relates to career counselling and job insertion.

The minister noted that another component of the programme seeks to improve information flows and networking among the various social safety service providers and to establish an efficient and fully functional Management Information System. He said the management information system is expected to centralise data, process information and disseminate the outputs among the key stakeholders.

“It is imperative that the inter-institutional collaboration among the social safety net providers be strengthened in order to be better able to assess the effectiveness and targeting of their programmes. We are not here to duplicate effort, but to strengthen the coordination and business flows between these agencies, towards the overall improvement of their systems and procedures,” he said.

He added that the flow of information and data between related institutions should improve the monitoring and evaluation capabilities of those institutions and enable greater evidence based decision making, as well as allow them to take corrective actions when necessary. To that end, he noted that officers in the related agencies and institutions will participate in training in areas such as Monitoring and Evaluation, Project Management, MS Project and Management information Systems.

“The Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Health will play integral roles in the strategy of the programme as we will be connecting with existing public services and depending on them to ensure that our beneficiaries are able to claim their benefits without any sense of shame. Many of those living in poverty are already feeling their own personal stigma, believing that claiming benefits is embarrassing. We therefore have a duty to try to reduce this feeling and most importantly to ensure that we do not institutionalise that stigma, but rather open the doors for progress and opportunity,” Minister Blackett added. (JRT)