Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

CHARLES

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security will be establishing remedial classes for skilled labourers who are illiterate.

Pearnel Charles, Minister of Labour and Social Security, announced the pilot project on Wednesday at a meeting of the Labour Advisory Committee at the Ministry of Labour.

"I am frightened to see how many skilled Jamaicans are illiterate. That is hard to understand. Very skilled first-class welder, first-class steel man and he has to make an 'X' for his money," Charles said.

The minister said details of how the programme would work would be outlined at a later date. In the meantime, he said the ministry was interviewing potential teachers for the programme.

He said the project was necessary as there was an alarming number of illiterate persons in the workforce.

"We are going to set up something in this ministry that is going to teach a man to read and I don't want anybody to tell me that it is hard," he said. "It is not hard if he wants to do it."

Training and employment

Mr. Charles said the ministry would be moving from the role of only settling disputes to one of training and employment.

Both the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) and the trade unions endorsed the move by the ministry. Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, executive director of the JEF, said there needed to be more synergy with the Education Ministry as there was currently a gap between what came out of the education system and what the workplace needed.

She also welcomed the new focus of the Labour Ministry.

"We are seeing the ministry not only as looking at settling disputes but on development, expansion, investment (and) human-resource development. It is about putting in the kind of framework that's going to make businesses feel comfortable coming here, and of course the workers being successful," she said.

For his part, Vincent Morrison, president of the National Workers' Union, said action should be taken to ensure that young people were trained in a number of skills.