-other modifications to be made this year

THE Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), under the Ministry of Labour, is set to undergo extensive modifications this year.

Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton has stated that while the CRMA has upgraded their application process from paper-based to digital, more work needs to be done to ensure better service and user experience for those persons seeking jobs through the job board.

Minister Hamilton said: “We have to do some work with it to develop it, because a lot of the features that should be there, we have to have them now included. I want to take it whereby you can have a chatroom where the potential employee and the employer can have conversations.”

He added that although there is a national job bank, in the individual regions where their offices are located, there must also be a Regional Guyana Job Bank to monitor what is happening in their region with regard to who is seeking employment and the companies in those regions that they can point job seekers to.

In addition to this, it was also revealed that a legislative framework will be set up for the CRMA, so that it can supervise the new employment agencies in Guyana. These agencies would also need to be registered.

The minister said that this will be a form of protection for Guyanese being employed by these agencies.

Furthermore, Minister Hamilton shared that an app will be launched soon by his ministry to facilitate labour-related complaints. The minister said that this app will be launched within a week or two weeks.

The Labour Department is also developing a labour-force survey apparatus, which will be used to inform government of the potential, new jobs that will come to Guyana, and some that are already here.
Minister Hamilton explained that this will provide a form of guidance for young people entering the employment sector.

He expressed, “What we have now, a lot of young people [are] still going behind studying (for professions) that are going out of style.”

According to Minister Hamilton, many people don’t ‘study’ or think about what is wanted presently in the job market, adding that the labour force is changing, with unique and more modern jobs becoming available.

The minister highlighted that jobs in logistics, occupational safety and health, among many others, are new skillsets which are required in many jobs today.

To cater to the influx of migrant labourers in Guyana, he stated that the ministry is working with entities to develop a strategy that speaks specifically to the labour force, with discussions for a sort of framework to be developed.

This, he said, will allow for migrant labourers entering Guyana in a controlled way to be a part of our labour force.

More than 6,000 Guyanese have used the CRMA platform to access job listings in both the public and private sectors.