US power company seeking J’can employees
WESTERN BUREAU — Less than half of the job seekers who on Friday flocked to Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, with the hope of securing a position with the US-based Virginia Light and Power Company, passed the first round of the selection process.
Only 90 of the 200 who showed up were given the green light. But another 40, including the lone female applicant, may get the go-ahead today if they can supply proof of prior experience in the field.
According to Barrington Bailey, the senior director of manpower services for the Ministry of Labour, a two-member team from Virginia was here to recruit 300 workers to fill a shortfall of utility line directors in that US state.
“For years they have had a shortage of workers there. So they have now decided to bring in offshore workers to complement their manpower. They are looking for utility line directors, that is persons who have worked in power line, hot line as they call it,” Bailey said.
Even if the 40 borderline applicants get in, the company will still need 170 workers. Interested parties, Bailey said, can go to the Ministry of Labour’s office at 110 East Street in Kingston for interviews today.
The requirements include:
* the presentation of a valid Jamaican passport;
* experience in planting utility posts and running high tension wires; and
* a recommendation from a former employer or evidence to substantiate that they have been formerly trained in the field.
The ministry will check their criminal record and a medical examination will be performed. If all goes well their passports will be sent to the US embassy for the issuing of visas.
Toraine Tulloch, 26, journeyed from Kingston for the interview. And while it is not known whether he was among the 90 persons selected, he was optimistic before the interviews began.
The Portmore HEART Academy graduate said he wanted to be a part of the programme to earn money and gain some exposure.
He said he is single now but wants a family and he believes that a job overseas would take him one step closer to making that a reality.
“I don’t have any wife or children yet but I would like to (have a family). So I am going to try my best to be a part of it,” he said.
The 14 year-old H2B programme, under which these utility line directors are being recruited, is to benefit 2,000 people this year. Commonly known as the Hotel Workers programme, it will see the recruitment process continuing next week, Bailey said.
“We continue the hotel workers selection all of next week, Tuesday to Saturday (at Jarett Park). Then we move on to St Ann then to Mandeville, then into Kingston. We are doing the entire island…,” he said.
Prior to 1989, when the programme began in earnest, only 105 persons worked in hotels overseas. Today, Bailey said, that number had increased to over 5,000 each year even as the financial benefits to the workers and the island also increased.
Against this background, he urges workers to abide by the programme’s stipulations.
“We are appealing to everybody, those applying, those recommended, not to go up there and run off because it is one of our concerns right now,” he said, adding that in the past there had also been concerns about prostitution and shoplifting.
But through orientation and counselling programmes, the ministry official said, they were able to bring about a decline in such cases.
“We are appealing to them to be honest and to be patriotic. And we are making everybody know that if your friend does it, it is as bad as if you had done it because they group everybody and say ‘the Jamaicans’. So you have to look out and make sure that person doesn’t get out of line,” he added.