Denworth Finnikin, National TVET coordinator, addressing yesterday’s second Annual Outsource 2 Jamaica Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James. (Photo: Philp Lemonte)
ROSE HALL, St James — More than 100,000 Jamaicans are being targeted for employment in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector by 2022, as the Government aims to position the industry as a major sector for investment.
The disclosure was made by Denworth Finnikin, National TVET coordinator, who represented minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Karl Samuda at the second Annual Outsource 2 Jamaica Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James yesterday.
Finnikin pointed out that when he first got involved in the industry in 2013, there were just about 13,500 employees and roughly 20 companies.
Today, he said, there are more than 35,000 employees and up to 60 firms.
He said the Ministry of Education is currently working on a number of programmes to better prepare students for work in the sector. These include plans to improve their technical skills, as well as their language and broader communication skills.
Plans are also being finalised to train 10,000 students, in preparation for the BPO industry, in all secondary schools. He said BPO fundamentals will also be introduced for customer engagement operations on a phased basis.
“Recently, we partnered with City and Guilds to certify over 2,200 students in customer service. At present, there are another 2,400 persons enrolled in the Career Advancement Programme, and those 2,400 are just the numbers doing a BPO or related courses, such as customer engagement, customer services support, and data operation,” Finnikin disclosed.
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