The St Vincent government is developing rapid training and certification programmes to address a critical skills mismatch within the national workforce. While St. Vincent and the Grenadines faces a general unemployment rate of approximately 19% to 20%, major infrastructure projects are currently hindered by a shortage of specialty workers.
Prime Minister Godwin Friday emphasised that the lack of skilled labour cannot be addressed on a project-by-project basis but requires a national-level intervention to ensure local citizens can fill available roles.
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education are collaborating with other government departments to create these programmes.
A key component is providing formal certification to workers, potentially involving the local community college, to ensure they meet the specific standards required for modern construction and specialty sectors.
The government intends for these rapid initiatives to address short-term labour needs within the next six months.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Daniel Cummings stated that the primary goal is to bring “people up to speed” so they can “cash in” on major state projects rather than seeing those opportunities go unfilled or requiring external labour.
The urgency of these programmes is most visible at the Arnos Vale hospital project, which currently employs roughly 185 people but needs to double its workforce to meet original completion projections. The lack of specialty skills—beyond basic masonry or carpentry—has been identified as a primary obstacle to this expansion.
Beyond the hospital, the government views these programmes as a broader solution to a recurring phenomenon where large-scale developments, such as the previous Sandals project, have been limited by the same shortage of specialty persons across various sectors.