Over 3,000 Jamaicans hired in cruise ship recruitment programme
Tamoy Ashman / Our Today
Following a recent massive recruitment exercise, Tourism Minister Edmond Bartlett has indicated that 3,609 Jamaicans have been hired to work on Royal Caribbean cruise vessels.
Bartlett was addressing the House of Representatives today (July 26).
The recruitment process is ongoing with a total of 5,000 Jamaicans projected to be hired at the end, the tourism minister noted.
Said Bartlett: “This is a great statement for not only the work that the Government is doing in terms of the recovery, but is a reflection of the confidence that the international marketplace has in the quality and ability of the Jamaican worker.”
FIRST IN A LIFETIME
Bartlett noted that this was the first tim in his lifetime that he could recall a single recruitment drive seeing in excess of 3,000 persons being hired in Jamaica.
His hope is that, by the end of the recruitment period, the Government will come close to reaching its target of 10,000 to 90,000 Jamaicans being hired.
There is a call for another round of recruitments that is hoped to take place during the period of September to November, said Bartlett.
“One of the big disruptions has been the human capital disruption and we still have issues in relation to the return of a number of workers in the industry.”
Edmund Bartlett, minister of tourism
However, a decision was made for the recruitment process to only take place on the South coast of Jamaica to protect hotels in the North coast from losing workers.
“One of the big disruptions has been the human capital disruption and we still have issues in relation to the return of a number of workers in the industry,” said Bartlett.
He reported that tourism sectors globally have seen a loss of workers due to the pandemic and he does not wish for this to happen to the Jamaican tourism sector.
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