SKILLS REVOLUTION NEEDED TO UNDERWRITE FUTURE CARIBBEAN GROWTH: OP-ED COLUMN

It is no exaggeration to say that education has made the Caribbean what it is today. From rebellion, through emancipation, to the creation of unions and political parties, in revolution and the thirst for independence, education has been the common stream that enabled the flood of change.

Today, however, despite the deeply held belief of parents, governments and companies, that education is the key to personal and national development, the Caribbean is at a crossroads. Not only is secondary education failing many young people but just as importantly, higher and further education to a significant extent is not preparing individuals, nations, or the region for the world of tomorrow.

Resolving the problem is complex. There is still a tendency to see the way to success as a university degree that provides access to status through the law, teaching, higher grades of the public service, and politics. As the endless recitation of speakers’ qualifications and experience at almost every major Caribbean event attests, this still matters.

What is missing is the leadership and more importantly a Caribbean development model that recognizes that while the intellectual skills that lead to these disciplines remain essential, the nature of economic opportunity is changing, and small states that judiciously cultivate cadres of alternatively skilled individuals can obviate their limited size and physical resource.

Achieving change in education is no longer about measures that place a sticking plaster on current problems, but about developing a skilled knowledge-based, high-value-added, creative Caribbean work force able to establish a global place for the region’s largely small services-based economies.

As multiple recent reports indicate, in a world facilitated by connectivity, in which automation, robotics and the application of artificial intelligence and quantum computing are driving change and economic development, economies unable to reskill or upskill to meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution will have an uncertain future.

Importantly, this is not just about acquiring high tech qualifications or skills but as much about relating differently to changing global demand and Caribbean needs, and focusing more on the quality of service, care, engagement, and creativity.

With the right training, skills development, marketing and much improved connectivity, location becomes an increasingly meaningless concept whether opportunity lies in future in the Americas, the wider world or in meeting the region’s own needs.

An upskilled region could become, by example, a hub providing animation and postproduction services; for fashion design; software and IT development; cybersecurity expertise; political analysis and research; the secure transcription of court proceedings; some accounting and audit functions; and other forms of mutually reinforcing, pan-Caribbean employment. It could also add significant value and profitability to the region’s valuable tourism product.

With an understanding of the remarkable changes taking place globally in agriculture, many labor-intensive forms of farming will ultimately be marginalized but with the right skills, automation, the application of genetic engineering solutions and new transformative growing methods, Caribbean agriculture could be revolutionized, and food security guaranteed.