Find jobs in global space

As the country’s economy is right now, there are no opportunities for youths. Therefore, whatever youths want to do, they need to specialise in the field and consider in which country they wish to practice.

That was the advice of economist Indera Sagewan-Ali yesterday at the career fair of the St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS).

Thousands of university graduates are unemployed or work in jobs for which they were overqualified, she said, and certain fields, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, were saturated and other markets have few jobs.

She said leaders, politicians and policymakers – past and present – were not working in the best interest of youths. “Now is when we have to be preparing for that future, for the jobs that all of you are going to fill. So ask me, where will be the jobs in TT? Where will be the jobs for you in manufacturing? I don’t know. Where will be the jobs for you in the environment? There won’t be any...

“It speaks to the mis-match between our education system and the needs of the job market. It speaks to an absolute absence of the curriculum planning in our education system and the total absence of planning to develop industry.”

Sagewan-Ali added that the situation will not change in the next few years because economic development did not occur overnight but took at least a decade.

“My advice to parents and to children is to look at the global space and position yourself to be marketable in that global space... You need to start to use this (brain) to see where the world is going.”

That advice extended to entrepreneurship as she believed TT’s market of 1.3 million people was too small. However, she said whatever they did, they should be committed to excellence, flexible and open to change because change was the only constant in this world.

Despite this pronouncement, SAGHS Parent Teacher Association president Sharifa Ali-Abdullah hoped the fair would not only provide valuable information but inspire the school’s young women to clean up the “mess” that the country and the world has become.

She believed that was important because many youths were discouraged by the negativity in the world including climate change, crime and violence, corruption, food scarcity, water shortages, billions of refugees and displaced people, and more.

She stressed that positive things were also happening in the world. For example, many countries invested in clean energy thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent curtailing some of the gloomy scenarios presented. There were vaccines and cures for many diseases, and progress was being made in treating some types of cancer, including the use of nanoparticles.

“When I look at you I can sense there is some anxiety you are perhaps a bit scared and nervous and wondering about your future. But I also see the blessing of hope, of a future that beckons to great things. I want you to believe in yourselves, in your dreams. In each one of you glitters a brilliant opportunity to change TT, the world – a mission we all share.”

In her address, Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the frequent changes in political administrations hindered the country’s progress because the ruling administration often reversed decisions of the previous one. She believed that would be addressed in the future and encouraged the students to be part of that change.

“We are going to come to a space where, as a country, we made a decision to go forward regardless of who is driving the car. And when we get there it will be a time of rapid change in TT, and I look forward to it.”

She said TT needed leaders, policymakers and influencers. However, she warned, as public figures they would need to have self-control, be able to dissect situations, understand the bigger picture, and predict what would happen if they said or did something.