Bahamas Labour Dept. expands efforts to facilitate employment with Online Skills Bank

“Because of the Online Skills Bank, it has a greater reach, and so we see a lot of persons now applying in various disciplines…” — Christopher Farrington, public employment services officer

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas Department of Labour’s efforts to assist citizens and residents with gainful employment has become more digitized over the last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Public Employment Services Officer Christopher Farrington.

In an interview with Caribbean Employment, Farrington explained, “The Bahamas Department of Labour’s Online Skills Bank (https://jobseekers.bahamas.gov.bs) is a tool the Department of Labour uses to assist those persons who are unemployed or are underemployed.

“Previously, in the past, persons would have come to the Department of Labour with their resumes in hand — a lot of paper — and an officer would try to assist them with finding gainful employment. However, we have since modernized the entire process, where persons now can avail themselves and see the various jobs that are posted and apply for them.”

He noted that although the portal was introduced in 2018, its usage has increased significantly since 2020 as “in the past year, due to the pandemic, we had to facilitate all of our work remotely because we had persons who were unable to come inside”, in addition to a lot more people needing help with finding jobs.

“We have a lot of people who are out of the country who have been furloughed and we’ve been doing our part as best as possible trying to find new employment for persons,” Farrington said, adding that this includes searching for specific keywords in resumes that have been submitted to determine whether applicants would be a good match for open jobs.

Farrington also emphasized that while the past perception has been that the Department of Labour only found “the most domestic jobs” like custodial, housekeeping or construction work, job seekers are actually being matched with a wide variety of positions.

“In the past, positions for teachers, doctors, accountants, all those positions were available; it’s just that we did not have that platform unless you had visited the Department of Labour,” the employment officer outlined.

“Because of the Online Skills Bank, it has a greater reach, and so we see a lot of persons now applying with various skill sets — they’re either a doctor, they’re a nurse and then, most importantly, we need more welders.”

Farrington encouraged Bahamians and legal residents, including those on spousal permits, to avail themselves of the services available to become employed.

You can find the latest jobs in the Caribbean with Caribbean Employment

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Links
The Bahamas Government Online Skills Bank — https://jobseekers.bahamas.gov.bs