If the mountain won’t go to Mohammed ...

Several workers in the construction industry have warned Prime Minister Andrew Holness against opening the floodgates to imported labour, arguing that hundreds of skilled tradespeople are market-ready though most have not received formal training.

But while Renado Donalds, a certified electrician for more than five years, is sympathetic to that concern, he is urging all uncertified construction workers to pursue courses at HEART/NSTA Trust, the national training academy.

Upskilling of the domestic workforce is critical to preventing saturation of local worksites with staff from overseas, he said.

“It’s a good look for us to be certified and not need to get certified people from anywhere else to bring to Jamaica. If the system can help [those] who need to get certified, get certified, as well as who is interested to get certified must find the time and go forward,” Donalds said in a Gleaner interview along Palmoral Avenue in St Andrew on Monday.

Donalds said that while working without certification alongside Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company contractors after leaving high school, he went back to school. He acknowledges the need to balance work and school in tradesmanship.

That journey to certification at the Portmore HEART Academy was fraught with woes, with Donalds forced to stop from the course three to four times.

A former fibre technician for telecommunications company Digicel, Donalds said he carved out time from his job at JPS to attend evening classes for Level Two certfication.

“I always tell myself from I leave school that I don’t want to be a word-of-mouth electrician. I want to have even a little piece of paper to show my profession,” he said.

Holness’ comments about the prospect of worker importation, made at last week’s groundbreaking ceremony for the 700-room RIU Aquarelle in Coopers Pen, Trelawny, have stirred national debate and inflamed political and labour tensions in the construction industry, which has been resilient even amid the economic decline caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The discussion also coincides with a record-low unemployment rate of 6.2 per cent.

Donalds’ boss, Robert Williams, a construction supervisor and carpenter with certification from HEART, has called for the Government to be more flexible in its training and assessment regime. He suggests that trainers make visits to construction sites and conduct certification evaluations on spot, relieving workers of the burden of attending formal classes. In other words, if the mountain won’t go to Mohammed, take Mohammed to the mountain!

“You [the Government] supposed to go take man from foreign? You have whole heap o’ young youth out here weh want certify fi do a work … . That’s why sometimes dem can’t bother, because you have to register, you have to get JP,” Williams said of the prerequisites of approval by a justice of the peace.

“Di Government need fi come on the site, certify the man dem on di site, because a no everybody can afford fi come to the place [for certification]. ... We need fi depend on wiself! We no need fi depend on overseas! It’s not all about foreign!” he added.

Kenute Anglin, a professional mason who claimed to have got his talent from God, lamented the unwillingness of many young construction workers to be trained and certified, even when pressed to do so by older colleagues. He is also disappointed that many youth reject apprecenticeship stipends.

“Dem nah learn nothing. ... Dem want to wake up a morning time with a little spliff and dem hold corner till 5 o’clock, and dem go home,” Anglin said.

He is heartened by the anecdotal increase in female construction workers, bucking gendered traditions. That view was corroborated at two construction sites in the Liguanea and Mona neighbourhoods on Monday, with two women under 30 having supervisory roles.

“Right now, woman beat man on construction site! Woman beat man!” he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com