By:
Patricia Thangaraj
Persons who are educated and trained in technical and vocational (Tech-Voc) careers have the potential to earn more than their counterparts who are employed in careers which require an academic degree.
This is according to the Principal of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP), Hector Belle who said that it is okay for persons to have an academic qualification that would look nice framed and hung up on a wall, but this won’t necessarily guarantee you a job.
He stated that this prediction was made more than five decades ago and today it is proving to be true.
“Throughout the Caribbean people recognise that having academic qualifications is not enough. It is good to have to put it on a wall, but it would not get you a job, it would not enable you to create a job either. If you want to make money – and I was checking on some papers that were being written back in 1955 or thereabout when the Barbados Technical Institution was formed – they recognised that there was a need for technical persons,” he pointed out.
Speaking to the media recently he said that he is positive that everyone knows at least one person employed in a tech voc field, such as mechanics who are earning more than those who sit in the boardrooms of large corporations.
“It was believed that in time, the technicians would be earning even more than the so-called academic professions. Today, you would find that is so. I am quite sure that you know a lot of mechanics out there who are making more money than managers in different places.”
In fact, such it the demand for their services that if you want work done in a particular area, there is usually a waiting period and these persons need to then employ other persons in order to meet the demands for their expertise.
“They employ people. They don’t depend on anyone else and they manage the demand for their services such that you have to make an appointment. Right now I am interested in getting some work done, assisting a lady and I have to wait on the workmen because they are gainfully employed,” he explained.
This is especially true in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), said Belle. “You find that there is a great demand for computer services because computers are really what are running the world. Anytime that you want to communicate, you use a computer (and) you want to do accounting, you use a computer. As a matter of fact, it is putting pressure on the postal service right now, the emails and what not because persons are saving paper,” he explained.
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