Anna Regina gets $28M drainage pump

Nov 18, 2008 News

Document security was a main issue addressed at last Thursday’s Free Movement meeting. This is according to CARICOM Director of Human Development, Myrna Bernard, who said that Document Security engaged the meeting quite a bit because member states have reported receiving false documents.

According to Bernard, this will be an important aspect of the work of the Free Movement Committee in the immediate future. “It is certainly cause for concern,” Mrs Bernard noted.

She added that the meeting also looked at what needs to be done to improve and harmonise systems across the region.

“We looked at statistics; we looked at the number of people that were moving, the direction of the flows and some of the challenges that member states have been experiencing with regard to, for example, verification of certificates.”

Mrs Bernard added that there should be a lot of work going on in terms of harmonising documents and looking at Document Security.

The Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), which came into being last year, was also addressed at the meeting.

Mrs Bernard told this newspaper that she is happy to report that there has been quite a bit of success with it in schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to her, several students in that country have received certification through CXC with the CVQ.

She noted that there are only three Member States that have agencies equipped enough to actually certify students.

Jamaica, Mrs Bernard added, has continued its certification with persons in the work force. At the Free Movement meeting, it was reported that several persons have already started to move throughout the region with the CVQ.

“We expect that it will pick up as time goes by and as the qualification becomes available to more people. But we are quite heartened by what is happening in the school system, and we expect other Member States to take that opportunity to have their students certified.”

The CARICOM Secretariat and other regional educational institutions joined with the National Training Agency of Jamaica, the HEART Trust/NTA, to launch the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) in October last year.

The CVQ facilitates the movement of artisans and other skilled persons in the CSME. This qualification is accessible to persons already in the workforce, as well as students in secondary schools across the Caribbean region.

The free movement of skilled persons grew out of an agreed CARICOM policy that was originally separate but related to the original Protocol II of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

The agreed policy, called The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Free Movement of Persons Act, is now enacted legislation in all the CSME Member States.

It provides for the free movement of certain categories of skilled labour; but, according to the policy, there is to be eventual free movement of all persons, originally by 2008, but now by 2009.

Under this legislation, persons within these categories can qualify for Skills Certificates (which allow for the free movement across the region).

Since the start of the CSME, eight categories of CARICOM nationals have been eligible for free movement throughout the CSME without the need for work permits.

These people are university graduates, media workers, artistes, musicians, sportspersons, managers, technical and supervisory staff attached to a company, and self-employed persons/service providers.

At the July 2006 CARICOM Summit, it was agreed to allow for free movement of two more categories of skilled persons — tertiary-trained teachers and nurses.

It was also agreed that higglers, artisans, domestic workers and hospitality workers are to be added to the categories of labour allowed free movement at a later date, pending the agreement of an appropriate certification.

The freedom to live and work throughout the CSME is granted by the Certificate of Recognition of CARICOM Skills Qualification (commonly called a CARICOM Skills Certificate or just Skills Certificate).

The Skills Certificate essentially replaces work permits and is obtained from the requisite ministry once all the essential documents/qualifications (which vary with each category of skilled persons) are handed in with an application.

The Skills Certificate can be applied for in either the home or host country.

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