Jobs & Education

Sep 24, 2008 Features / Columnists

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Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA

INTRODUCTION
Our company receives many applications per day from young and old looking for meaningful work. Recently we saw the results from the CSEC where many students excelled, some with as many as thirteen subjects.
Many graduates from the University of Guyana are yet to find jobs to match their education.

In a recent news item in this paper on Monday 22 Sept 2008, reporter Rustom Seegopaul captured the essence of the problem with his interviews of a business owner, a graduate, a lecturer, a faculty Dean and students.

He noted that many businesses were looking for people with experience, while many graduates were frustrated their counterparts that had not attended university, now had more job experience than them and may in fact have already taken up the limited jobs. His report was timely and further discussions on the topic relevant.

SCHOOLS AND INTERNSHIP
When I ran my businesses in the United States, one of the key aspects of our future employees program was to work with Universities on a formal summer internship program.

We accepted a few students every summer to work with our company to gain experience. Many times when some of those students finally graduated, we hired them as permanent employees.

One school in Georgetown that aggressively works with such a program is the Business School. I have hired some over the years after their internship.

I would recommend that the University of Guyana formally put such a program in place with every level of business in the nation. Students must realize that an internship is a chance to learn and excel.

One will have to learn to do small tasks that will seem low to some because they may feel that they have education versus the other peers working alongside them.

Wrong attitude: Many may say I do not want to work in a store for an internship even if I am studying business. With the right attitude, you will learn customer service, pricing, quality control, inventory and possible accounting. This little experience can go a long way in future jobs in business management.

Success comes from learning to do the most basic of tasks. I have found that because I had done the lowest of tasks in my lifetime, if one day my employees don’t show up to work, I would not get paranoid and be able to do the tasks myself.

In my Military training, I learned to clean 25 toilets per day, today I can afford a maid, but can also do the chores myself, and cleaning one toilet seems so easy.

During an internship it is not about the money, but about the experience. Update your resume right after such an internship and try to do one per year until you graduate. This will significantly aid in your future employment when you graduate.

OPENING OUR JOB MARKET
One senior businessman last Saturday reminded me that apart from the Government passing laws and legislation that allow for a healthy business environment, it is the private sector and the citizens that run the country.

We need better policies that will open our investment climate to outside capital in areas of manufacturing. To do this, we need to solve our energy crisis and have a more friendly investment code.

For you to get jobs those critical components are needed and taxes must be reduced for consumers and businesses alike. I was shocked at one advertisement from a leading business on Sunday that showed the sale of vehicles.

One vehicle that can seat a family of seven was about G$5.6M which is equivalent to about US$27,000. The Government taxes on this vehicle were over $17M putting the vehicle at G$25M or about US$125,000. Imagine paying such figures for a US$27,000 vehicle.

The point I wanted to make there, that dealer may be able to only sell a few vehicles, but without such raping taxes may be able to sell much more which in turn would create more jobs in sales, accounting and repairs.

CONCLUSION
We’re at a crucial time in our history in Guyana. Much can be done now to build our today and our future, where we work together to create that positive-sum market economy.

In the interview by the reporter, the Dean and the Minister all had excuses why the job market was not adequate.

We can increase our job market as I mentioned by reducing taxes, creating a friendly investment code to attract outside capital and foremost solve our energy crisis with investment in alternative energy such as Ethanol and Hydropower.

These should be the topics at cabinet level meetings. We need an economic council made up of private sector leaders and public sector legislators to continually focus on this area in order for our citizens to have a chance of prosperity.

Let us get over the excuses and create concrete solutions to ensure that there is a larger job market in Guyana in order to keep our skill sets right here.

Send your comments and suggestions to peter.ramsaroop@gmail.com

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