THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE
medical staff! The new KEMH will also require facilities managers and maintenance staff, engineers, information technology personnel, pharmacists and social workers. In an ideal world, by the time the hospital is completed, we will have suitably qualified Bermudians to fill all these posts. But we have to start the process of qualifying and certifying now. We are urging people not to wait until the hospital is finished to start looking into these careers. Start now!
In a few years, hotel developments will also provide jobs in construction, as well as in facilities management, engineering and other technical posts. However, the hotels will also need staff to work once they are up and running. Possible vacancies include: general manager, front desk staff, marketing managers, bellmen, housekeeping, chefs, accountants, waiters, bartenders and information technology professionals. Our tourism and hospitality industry currently employs many guest workers in hotels and restaurants. Unless more Bermudians return to the industry, we will have to import more overseas labour. These industries have become undervalued by Bermudians, but visitors to our Island place value on the service and hospitality provided by local rather than foreign workers. We don’t have many Bermudians selling Bermuda to our visitors, and whilst our guest workers do a good job, a more authentic Bermuda experience is delivered by people from our own community.
Our research and gap analysis also revealed a need for Bermudians to qualify as: butchers, meat managers, ship surveyors, marine mechanics, mechanics, automotive technicians, bridge watchmen, master mariners, fire fighters, police officers, correctional officers, pharmacists, emergency medical technicians, speech therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, verbal behaviour therapists, horticulturists, golf course managers, architects and electricians.
Employers have a duty to use their best efforts to hire Bermudians. Our ministry, through the Department of Immigration, has zero tolerance for immigration and employment infractions, or contraventions of the Employment Act. Any employers found guilty of such violations are sanctioned and will not be granted work permits. I fully support these measures and implore employers to seek to hire Bermudians first. We are aware that there are employers that deliberately take steps to deny Bermudians jobs. Advertisements are sometimes written in such a manner as to discourage Bermudians from applying or to create conditions so that justification can be made for not hiring Bermudians. This must stop and I applaud Senator the Hon. Lt. Col. David Burch, OBE (Mil), JP, Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing, for taking such a bold step. It is our hope that all employers will hire more Bermudians and find reasons why they can hire Bermudians, as opposed to finding reasons why they cannot. We also hope that employers will hire Bermudian understudies in areas where they must hire a guest worker and train the Bermudian understudy to succeed the guest worker at the end of their contract. Work permits should not have to be renewed if proper steps are taken and Bermudians are identified, hired and trained to replace work permit holders.
But the Bermudian workforce has a role here as well. There need not be a sense of entitlement. Somehow, a culture of malaise has developed and some people think that because they are Bermudian, they don’t need to work hard and that everything should just be handed to them. It doesn’t work like that! As a Bermudian, your entitlement is to have the right to apply for and be given first shot at any job for which you are qualified. If you are successful,
32 FAST TRACK / Careers module / 2010-2011 “ The onus is now on our
people to take the necessary steps to be prepared, to reinvent themselves, to pursue the careers suggested, to make contact with potential employers and to embark on a journey to become qualified in a profession.
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you must work hard, be on time, model a good work ethic, be a team player, not call in sick all the time and after holiday weekends, be productive—in short, be the kind of employee that you would want to hire if you had your own business. Don’t always ask what the employer can do for you; ask instead what you can do for your employer. Do this and you will always have a job. Fail to do this to your peril; people who do not have an appropriate work ethic are always the first to be let go in economic downturns. Employees sometimes need to put themselves in the shoes of the business owner to see what it would be like if they had to pay out of their own pocket for staff taking advantage of benefits and sick leave policy, and generally pushing the envelope.
We have highlighted the professions that need Bermudians today and will need them in the future. The onus is now on Bermudians to take the necessary steps to be prepared, to reinvent themselves, to pursue the careers suggested, to make contact with potential employers and to embark on a journey to become qualified in a profession in which jobs are and will be available.
The Department of Labour and Training is currently comprised of the National Training Board, the Training and Employment Services Section and the Labour Relations Section. We fund educational and training programmes, national apprenticeship and certification initiatives; we provide grants, scholarships, funding and GED programmes; and we assist Bermudians with finding their first job, or a better job, and a rewarding career. DLT also assists with labour relations, working with employers, employees and unions to establish a workplace that is characterised by mutual trust, fairness, best practices and harmony.
Major (Retired) Allan Wayne Brunell Smith, ED, MBA, pmsc, is director at the Department of Labour and Training.
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