People who claim unemployment benefits from the Government  may soon get a chance  to prepare for re-entry  to the workplace through a BDS$10 million Employment  Retraining Fund (ERF).
Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, Senator Arni Walters, said the fund would offer jobless people training, retraining and retooling, and a chance  to re-enter the workplace as soon as possible.
Walters made the announcement at the opening ceremony of the ministry’s Job Expo 2009 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre,  under the theme, Refashion, Retrain, Retool: Tackling  The Unemployment Challenge.
The senator told those gathered that Government was seeking to enable legislation to establish the ERF and to provide the terms and conditions of its operation as proposed by the working committee. This would be made up of a number of stakeholders.
The National Employment Bureau, he said, was expected to track the progress of people under training, and  liaise with the National Insurance Office with regard to supporting  the distribution of funds from the Employment Training Fund.
Walters said there were serious questions of the labour market adjustment that needed to be addressed, since there was still too much migrant labour on the island.
The senator also cautioned people to be wary of an employment exchange that had been established in Barbados and placing people in overseas employment.
Walters said the National Employment Bureau was the only one responsible for finding overseas employment, and any company wanting to do so should be registered with them.
“The Ministry of Labour is not aware of any persons who have been licensed to recruit workers in Barbados for overseas employment on cruise ships or otherwise . . . . Persons must be aware that flirtation with any such unregistered private employment agencies falls outside the protection which Government can offer under the law,”  he cautioned.
The Job Expo sought  to advance many of the objectives of the national employment service, bringing workers, students, trainees and apprentices together  with employers and training institutions.  (CT)