As Jamaica grapples with the challenges of brain drain locally, the World Bank is proposing a new approach to migration, where countries that recruit skilled labour from the island contribute to the funding of training initiatives locally.
Lead Economist at the World Bank, Pablo Acosta, made the suggestion during the presentation of the findings of the World Bank’s report on ‘Exploiting the brain gain potential for better human capital outcomes’ in Kingston on Thursday.
The report highlights that the stock of high-skilled Jamaicans living abroad has increased significantly, from approximately 92,000 in 1980, to over 400,000 in 2010.
The loss of local talent has been felt across sectors, with health and education being the worst hit.
Acosta argued that global skills partnerships would support the training of non-migrants, increasing human capital, rather than draining it.
“Papers are coming out and research are coming out that shows that migration can also be a positive and stimulating force to generate additional human capital accommodation,” he indicated.
He emphasised the need for Jamaica to establish partnerships with recruiting entities to efficiently train its labour force.
“Can we craft policies and others that allow people to get experience at home? Some of them may migrate, some of them may stay, and that also generates additional opportunities for our local economies,” Acosta said.
In relation to the training of workers, he asserted that there needs to be a shared responsibility between origin countries, destination countries, and migrants themselves to finance training.
“Ideally, you don’t want the origin countries to pay all the costs for that training. There has to be a shared responsibility… between origin country, the destination country, and even the migrant themselves,” Acosta proposed.
“So, the whole discussion about how we can specialise in financing training, this has to be… (also about crafting) models that benefit origin (countries), destination (countries), and migrants,” he stated.
Acosta said the training must be supported by what he termed as “legal and mobility pathways”.
“So there has to be association between countries, (and) bilateral agreements that allow people to eventually move in a natural way, in a predictable way, and in a… ,” Acosta stated.
The hotel sector, health and construction industries have been battling labour shortages over recent time.
While some private sector leaders have been calling for the importation of skilled labour, the Government has moved to abolish fees at the HEART/NSTA Trust to ramp up skills training locally, as one of the methods to address local skill shortages.
