WORC doing a better job, says premier
(CNS): Since November last year more than 1,183 local people were registered with government’s new job placement agency and around 330 people have found work since March. Premier Alden McLaughlin said that WORC has been very successful in placing Caymanians in jobs. “The new department is performing much, much better and achieving much, much greater positive results than had hitherto been the case,” he told the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC) is outperforming its predecessor, the National Workforce Development Agency (NWDA), by a considerable margin, given that the former agency was averaging around 150 job placements per year while WORC placed more than double that number between March and September, according to the figures revealed by the premier.
As he answered questions from opposition MLA Alva Suckoo (NEW), he said that in any country there will always be a very small number of people who will not be able to find work, as that was “just a fact of life”.
He listed the numerous specific and tailored programmes now offered by the government to help people prepare, train and find suitable work. McLaughlin said the agency was now focusing on a creating a much more basic programme to help people with serious literacy and numeracy problems. He said it was an area that remained problematic and there is no established programme, so the WORC team, in conjunction with the University College of the Cayman Islands, is hoping to roll one out soon.
“The issue around adult literacy and numeracy is a sensitive one as many people are very embarrassed… to acknowledge that they don’t have those basic skills, so it is one you have to be very careful about how you go about it and how you recruit people to such a programme,” he said. WORC is building staff capacity and resources so they can implement and monitor the programme, he added.
McLaughlin said that the computer programme at the agency, which is designed to connect the available vacancies with job-seekers, was still giving problems but a major upgrade was coming to deal with the issues. This should be live early next month.
The premier also revealed that the review of the minimum wage regime had been delayed by the pandemic. The review began last year in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and officials are pressing ahead with the work, he said.
Training local workers, having better systems to help match job-seekers with vacancies and the minimum wage are critical factors in addressing the local unemployment problem. However, the issue of the glass ceiling for Caymanians and challenges for local people in the workplace are more complex.
While WORC appears to be more successful than its predecessor, a major challenge that WORC and the NWDA still face is the renewal of work permits. Concerns remain that this is the area undermining the advancement of Caymanians, with employers tailoring roles and work permit renewals to fit and retain expatriate workers in their organisations rather than actually training or promoting Caymanians to take the jobs.
Category: Jobs, Local News
As someone who is currently dealing with WORC for a job.
They DO NOT answer calls or emails and DO NOT have the staffing to even do what the government is saying.
Website DOES NOT work and staffing seems to have no clue what they are doing. They are NOT HR professionals.
I feel your pain, bro’.
Expats flooding in now.
The Government needs to enact a welfare law and start deducting at least 1-2% of everyone’s salaries to be used to provide unemployment and welfare benefits to the unfortunate in this country. Since many employers don’t want to hire Caymanians, citing all their anti-Caymanian reasons, this is the only way forward. The rate deducted can be increased or decreased according to unemployment and welfare needs.
yeah you don’t want to give Cayman politicians the ability to income tax.
A better system that would not be “tax” is a Canadian style unemployment insurance (1% of salary) which would cover you against periods of unemployment based on your premiums, like a captive program. If there are 40,000 working residents earning $50,000 on average that would equate to roughly $20m a that could be paid out to the unemployed.
As the funds would be ring-fenced and working residents would be guaranteed income protection and a share of any surplus, they could hardly complain. Of course higher earners contribute more whilst being much less likely to become unemployed so effectively subsidize everyone else.
Expats would be required to contribute but would struggle to claim because you’d have to be resident and unemployed to claim but you can’t be resident for long as an expat whilst unemployed, acting as a subsidy for the coverage/cost for Caymanians.
If we’d put this in place years ago we’d have been in great shape for the pandemic.
Unbelievably, when I had difficulty getting answers at WORC through their portal, I put a call in, asked to speak to the “top” person. Though I could tell he was rushed, his answers were succinct and extremely helpful. Let’s continue putting more intelligent and caring Caymanians in effective roles.
Boy look here. Stop the Bloodclot lying to people.
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO GOT JOBS ARE THE WORK PERMIT HOLDERS.
You all a bunch of self praising idiots.
Not 1 caymanian was hired
Your patents brought you up as liars…..
Too many employers are still tailoring job ads for permit holders and not giving perfectly qualified local workers a chance.
Yes. Why does cost-u-less say Caymanian applicants should speak Spanish when you know damn well many of the employees do not!
Maybe they decided they need at least one Spanish speaker, and they do not have one?
Why would they need a Spanish speaker in a British Overseas Territory?
Maybe because of corruption with the English test at the immigration department for years?
No surprise here! All political pariahs need to be purged from Government’s ranks because they are both useless and inept and are a huge embarrassment and frequently destroy morale and efficiency and impedes progress in government. Congratulations to all of those employed at WORC for pulling them out of this terrible mess they were in. Excellent work WORC!
Well done WORC for once i must agree with the Premier. The new leadership has made all the difference! Its sad some of these Political cutthroats won’t leave peaceful.
More efficient because there are less jobs being advertised so less applications/paperwork etc?
Take that bow Mr. Premier.
“Says Premier” says it all.
My daughter who has Cayman status and a University degree applied for two Civil Service positions through WORC 3 months ago. She never heard back and got no response to her folow up e mails.It seems the system has not changed in the Civil Service – nepotism still rules.
@12:41 WORC only deals with private sectorjobs. For government jobs go to the government website, http://www.gov.ky and look for the jobs portal.
Anon. Come on your children should be applying direct to the civil service. You mean you don’t know that WORC doesn’t deal with civil servants employment.
Zzzzzzzzzz
@3.16pm They probably made up that whole story
They need people that won’t rock the boat with logic or work ethic nor threaten their position.
Anon so happy you have realised that the civil service is the best place to work.
We all know that, nice cushy job with nice pay and you don’;t really have to work… sometimes you are on paid leave for years too!
If your daughter has a “real” degree, why apply for a government job that pays cents on the dollar for legitimate educated people? Also, if she has an education, why are you posting this rather than your daughter? If she is qualified and has a degree, no need for “daddy” to look out for her. My daughter who has a real education from respected universities would eat her and you alive anywhere she wants to go in the world. At 16 her public speaking outshined the career government officials. It was not even close in terms of delivery of an argument. The regional school board chairman looked like a 5 th grader. He is now a politician, but my daughter at 31 will likely be running an international company within the next two years. You may cry BS, but that is what happens in the real world. By her age I ran a division of a listed company with people twice my age working for me. Not privileged background, I grew up poor in social housing, but wise and smart.
4.45pm You can only be a troll!.
She’s probably the new Caymanian, those who truly feel and act entitled to everything
Nepotism is alive and well in the private sector too!
Not to be a jerk but by definition she has the qualifications for an entry level job. What’s her degree in and what jobs is she applying for?
Mediocrity is the foundation on which this government exists.
Like Alden cares are even has a clue….just another diversion to protect his record work permit fees. Thanks for ditch digging jobs Alden the Destroyer.
Well they can’t do any worse, can they?
Why issue a work permit when you have qualified caymanian that is not working yes business people need for their work to be done, but at the same time it’s hard time now your people should come first
It’s not that simple. You realize the job needs don’t always line up with the timelines of the Caymanians (qualified or not). Let’s say I need to hire now so I post and hire an expat…then two months later a qualified Caymanian loses their job and is looking for the same/similar opportunity; it’s too late, I already filled it and it won’t come up again for a year or two. That’s nobody’s fault and it’s no wild conspiracy. Or several companies are hiring the same position and a few are filled by caymanians and a few by expats, then one of those companies goes bankrupt and the Caymanian loses their job…same problem; those other positions are spoken for. This doesn’t take into consideration the Caymanians who are not as qualified as they’d like to think; they get a job, can’t perform at the level and lose it. It happens to expats too; it happens to everyone in every country when you get in over your head and can’t figure it out and succeed.
Everyone loves to repeat this drivel “why are there permits when qualified Caymanians are everywhere looking for work?” That’s a gross oversimplification of this issue and expecting the solution to be as simple as you make it sound in your question is a waste of all our time.
I appreciate that you indicated the job does not come up for a year or two…because of Alden most employers don’t realize the position is being held until a suitable Caymanian applies during the renewal process.
Your argument is overly simplistic if you feel that the issues of hiring Caymanians all boils down to a timing mismatch. All you need to do is to take a walk over to your nearest bar, restaurant, hotel, gas station. If your argument was indeed true then I would say that each of these establishments have somehow managed to beat the law of averages EVERY SINGLE TIME.
But I do not work in these establishment, I work for a professional outfit, where the hiring practices have consistently favoured non-Caymanians.
You can continue to keep on your obvious blinders whilst Caymanians continue to bleat this “drivel”. I believe there is a phrase perfectly designed for you and your elk … expat privilege. Enjoy.
Expats most definitely do not enjoy privilege. They pay ALL the fees to keep this place afloat while Caymanians pay nothing and take huge over inflated civil service salaries. Then they can’t get mortgages on the same terms as locals. They have to pay full stamp duty. They don’t get support if made redundant. In any other developed country this would be racism because of the doctrine of indirect discrimination. But rest assured a levelling is coming and then we will see who has privilege.
Welcome to the club, as locals, neither can we!!!
Sorry buddy. You misunderstand. I know it doesn’t boil down to just that, but that’ along with other structural issues are a big piece of it.
Let’s say a company is hiring for tech position and they need a software developer, but the Caymanian available is an IT or web developer. Very close but not the right fit. Structural mismatch…work permit granted and the Caymanian doesn’t get that job. To your point about bars: I can’t speak for bartenders but I know several Caymanian restaurant managers. I also have worked in the industry and seen countless jobs of this nature posted with ZERO Caymanian applicants. Why that is I can’t tell you but it happens all the time across industries.
Expats do have privileges in certain circumstances however that is often based on life and professional backgrounds. Caymanians have bona fide legal privileges in a dozen different aspects. If your argument is “go look how unfair it is at who got hired at the bar” then you’re the one not digging deep enough into it. The drivel is real because of your cynicism.
The software developer vs the web developer. This is where an organisation should hire the Caymanian and train them towards a career path that will benefit all. Maybe this is another policy that WORC can look into. I realize they have many programs in place now to help job seekers (passport to success, etc) so adding another right now might be difficult. Doing a great job so far!
What if they need the software developed now by a senior level person? I’m an engineer with a master’s degree but I can’t write code to save my life. In a large company with a hundred different programmers and developers you can train people across tasks and platforms and afford to do so over the years. A small company here with a half dozen people can’t afford that. They might not be able to do that.
Look at WAC and Water company….water desalination is a super niche field and not a lot of people do it…very specialized. That said you don’t need more than 1 or 2 experts to run the engineering side of those companies. So maybe a Caymanian is trained and experienced in wastewater or storm water management but they want a job in desalination; it’s not going to work as easily as everyone thinks it should in a perfect world. He/she could go to the Middle East where there are thousands of such jobs, get trained, and come back. But for it to happen seamlessly here is just not a realistic expectation. I’m not a pessimist…just a realist.
Well done Alden by your own data WORC has a 30% success rate.
Any success is in spite of it’s purpose…to allow Alden and soon Roy to continue giving away the futures of Caymanians.
It looks as if, despite the hurdles, Mr. Scott is doing an excellent job. Glad to hear that WORC is working. NWDA was a bit of a disaster and it’s replacement should do much to help upskill and employ our own.
Jeremy is doing an excellent job. WORC is not however working.
So is his success measured by attendance?
No. His knowledge, leadership, integrity and responsiveness. All excellent.
The tools and machinery he and his team are required to operate. Total shit.
This kid is the smartest in the world, says Auntie.