Minister Encourages Masons To Get Assessed
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Patrice Minors said that the Ministry is currently in the process of conducting an assessment to accurately define the category masons.
“Following further consultation with various stakeholders within this industry, it was noted that many individuals who deemed themselves to be a ‘mason’ actually were deficient in some of the required competencies to be proficient in this job category,” said the Ministry.
The Construction Association of Bermuda [COAB], the Bermuda College and the National Training Board [NTB] worked together to create an Assessment Questionnaire to evaluate and measure the core theoretical knowledge of those unemployed individuals who once worked in the capacity of a skilled labourer, junior mason, mason or top grade mason.
Minister Minors said, “The Assessment is designed to enable the Department of Labour and Training to properly categorize an individual’s skill set and determine how to match them with job opportunities and potential employers.
“All individuals who attended the Job Fair and who registered at the Department of Labour and Training have been invited to attend the evaluation sessions which are being administered by members of the Construction Association.”
The Minister explained that there are 148 unemployed individuals registered with the Department under the category of mason.
The results of the assessments as at June 13, 2012 are as follows:
- 148 individuals were called and invited to attend an assessment;
- 34 were not contactable at numbers provided;
- 1 indicated he was not a mason;
- 24 persons completed the assessment;
- 2 assessments were incomplete; and
- 15 individuals indicated they would attend but did not show.
The panelists determined the following:
- 0 are classified as labourers;
- 2 are skilled labourers;
- 8 are junior masons;
- 8 are masons; and
- 6 are top grade masons.
Minister Minors stressed that the sessions are “currently ongoing and there is still an opportunity for all registered individuals who have been called and have not yet attended an assessment to do so over the course of this month.”
The Minister further advised that the department will assist those who wish to improve their capabilities in this field by enrolling at the Bermuda College so that their skill deficiencies can be addressed in a technical teaching environment. Individuals should contact the NTB or the CAOB to secure an appointment to attend an assessment session.
Minister Minors concluded, “I also want to encourage employers to contact the Department of Labour and Training to seek potential employees, as we are more confident through this initiative that we can correctly identify individuals’ proficiency levels, and match them with industry’s requirements.
“We all have the responsibility of ensuring that we provide Bermudians with opportunities to allow them to remain solid ‘proud’ and productive citizens.”
“The Department of Labour and Training is committed to making steady progress to ensure that every opportunity is made available for unemployed Bermudians to have a fair chance of securing employment. We do not wish anyone to miss this opportunity to have their masonry skill sets formally assessed,” said the Ministry.
The Minister really doesn’t have a clue of what is what!!
In another announcement, it was determined that many individuals who deem themselves to be a “Government Minister” are actually deficient in some of the required competencies to be proficient in this job category. Therefore an Assessment will be required to determine whether the individual has the minimum competence for holding such a position.
The government needs to reassess all government workers in every field, including ministers…
34 were not contactable at numbers provided;
1 indicated he was not a mason;
24 persons completed the assessment;
2 assessments were incomplete; and
15 individuals indicated they would attend but did not show
so that makes 76 of the 148 called… what hapend to the other 72 people?
I have been calling for this for years, those of us in the industry knew that a lot of these people that claim to be, “out of work trades man” are not!. The real problem comes, when policies are being enacted, based of these fallacies. Work permits are being denied based on these fake numbers. How hard could it possibly be, to call up the former employer of these people who are claiming to be masons and carpenters. If at least that were done, up to 80% would not be registered as “Trades man out of work”, A few would be Juniors and Masons. I can tell you first hand, there are plenty of work out here, small they may be but plenty none the less. We just can’t find good talent to do them.
You can’t put policies in place just because someone walks through your door and say, ” I am a mason with 20 years experience and interviewed with ten employers before one will hire me”. Or saying someone is a carpenter, just because he shows up to a job fair, with a wood carving. A wood carver he may be, a carpenter? that’s a different story. He may well be a carpenter but not because he shows you a wood carving. It’s the opinion of those persons that they are trades men, an opinion, their employers don’t seem share.
Now after the damage has been done, they want to do, what they should have been doing all along. You have already sent home many good workers, who could have been spending the money, they earned, doing some of the abundance of work, that’s here to be done. Instead, you sent them home, expecting us to hire these phonies. Well I can tell you this Minister, If I want a good mason or carpenter, to do a particular job, I won’t be hiring someone just because they are out of s job. I will only hire the person that can do the job and if I can’t find that person, that job sits there until I can get to it, with the meager staff that I have.
The moratorium on trades men, have only served to do more damage to the economy, not help it. You all need to stop the ignorance and use some wisdom, when making these decisions. You all keep making bad decisions and then try to fix them when it’s too late. All it takes is to drop the emotions and use some science based evidence. This evaluation is a step in the right direction and based on the numbers, a success rate of about 9.5% was yielded. So over 90% of those who sad they were masons, either didn’t show up or were simply, just not masons.
The methods and numbers are all out there, for which you can use to come up with sound policies, but I guess this is the price we pay for this insanity, we call “Party Politics”.
This is definitely a step in the right direction.
We do not allow doctors or nurses to work in the hospitals or clinics if they don’t have the right credentials. Social workers, family care workers, addiction counsellors, all have to be credentialed and on a registry.
For the amount of money we must spend to have repairs done on our houses, and the stress and heartache (and extra cost for corrections) when we find we have hired a “bush” labourer, instead of the expert he claimed to be, it is my contention that ALL tradespeople should have a valid certificat/credential to prove their competency. It would be important that whatever testing format used is strongly weighted toward hands-on competency, as many of our men go into the skilled trades because they struggle with the written word.