Compensation review takes centre stage at UTech
... as Cabinet approves staff structure
Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2023 | 12:13 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The Cabinet has approved an expanded staff structure consisting of 832 additional posts that were identified after an audit conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service for the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), as well as the operational pay plan that has been used by the institution since 1995.
However, the university is now in talks with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service regarding the compensation review, Education Minister Fayval Williams disclosed on Tuesday.
Addressing the House of Representatives, Williams said that the long-standing issues for UTech have persisted over decades.
“I am extremely delighted that this Government has taken the steps necessary to regularise the staff structure, giving confidence and certainty to a situation that has been allowed to meander since 1995. There is still more work to be done, but this Government is committed to ensuring expanded access to tertiary education for our students,” Williams added.
She said the issue first arose when the Papine, St Andrew-based institution, then known as the College of Science and Technology (CAST), was granted university status in 1995.
UPGRADES MADE BY REQUESTS
With the passing of the University of Technology Jamaica Act, a number of requirements of the University Council of Jamaica, and some requests made by the Government, UTech made several upgrades to its programmes and structure, consistent with its mandate to support national development.
Adjustments in the staff structure would have also been the result of UTech’s response to the request of the Government at various times to introduce programmes to support national imperatives. This included the requests made in 1999 and supported by a Cabinet decision that mandated that the general training of health professionals be transferred from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Education with the management and implementation of the training programme to be undertaken by UTech, Jamaica, said Williams.
Subsequent to that decision in 2008, the training programme for registered nurses was also transferred to UTech. In 2014, the Ministry of Health transferred the remaining training programmes for midwifery (direct entry and post basic) and critical care and nurse anaesthetists programmes, thereby granting UTech, Jamaica, full responsibility for these training programmes.
Thereafter, under a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Ministry of Education and Youth and UTech Jamaica, the university was engaged to complete the training of students already being trained by the health ministry and to engage new cohorts to prevent a gap in the supply of nurses to the workforce, Williams explained.
UTech responded to requests to support the training of dentists by taking responsibility for the Government of Jamaica’s dentistry and dental auxiliary programme, as well as the training of public health workers by taking responsibility for the West Indies School of Public Health.
“In both instances, UTech was not only asked to take responsibility for the programmes but to expand them to increase the number of persons available for deployment to the health sector,” Williams noted, adding that UTech has “distinguished itself as a dynamic higher education institution”.