NIHERST–ILO Study Identifies STEM Skills Needs Across Emerging Sectors
A new study by National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) has assessed the country’s future job market, tracking the vital Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills needed to drive five emerging economic sectors.
The study aimed to bridge the gap between education and employment, pinpointing exactly where technical skills are needed most.
NIHERST Chairman Dr Indira Rampersad highlighted the first three critical sectors.
« One, maritime, capitalising on our geographic positioning to move up the value chain from basic port services to advanced logistics and maritime technology. Two, aviation, facilitating both international and regional connectivity while supporting trade, tourism, and employment. Three, tourism: re-engineering our hospitality product into a high-value experiential and digitally integrated ecosystem. »
Beyond those areas, the study focused heavily on technology and agriculture. Researchers looked closely at software design and applications to position the country as a regional digital hub, alongside agro-processing, which merges science and agriculture to secure local food supply chains.
Modernising the country’s approach to education is the only way to keep pace with these changes.
Director ILO Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Joni Musabayana, maintains that with fast-moving global advancements, having concrete, localised data is now a matter of economic survival.
« The analysis of skills that we have done with NIHERST are actually an existential necessity. This will bring us up-to-date data on the supply and demand information on the skills that are needed, and this reliable information in turn will help us understand what is happening with the occupations and which skills are going to be more important, and it is, of course, clear that STEM skills are particularly key. »
NIHERST and the ILO stress that this analysis must immediately translate into action, with the first order of business being the reshaping of local training systems and institutions to make them far more responsive to real-world labour market demands.
