The Transition of Jamaican - International Labour Organisation ...

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1 Project Context and Rationale Introduction Jamaica is a small island nation, with a land area of 11 000 km². It is classified by the World Bank as Lower Middle Income with a Gross National Income of US$3 155.50 per capita. Between 1999 and 2004, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by an average of 1.3 per cent per annum, 1.0 percentage point higher than the average annual growth recorded during the previous five years. The major growth sectors during 1999–2004 were Transport, Storage & Communication, Financing & Insurance Services, and Electricity & Water. With regard to the major social indicators, 19.1 per cent of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2003. The combined early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment rate was 75.5 per cent, (77.0 per cent for females, 71.4 per cent for males), and the adult literacy rate was 79.9 per cent. 1 An estimated 95.0 per cent of births were attended by skilled health staff, and life expectancy at birth was 73.3 years in 2004. The number of persons in the Jamaican labour force totalled 1 194 800 in 2004 with males accounting for 55.5 per cent. The labour force participation rate stood at 64.3 per cent, with the rate for males being 73.3 per cent, and females 55.8 per cent. The average unemployment rate was 11.7 per cent, with the unemployment rate being 7.9 per cent for males, and 16.4 per cent for females. 2 It is reported that 3 there were 485 938 youth aged 15–24 years in 2004, accounting for 18.3 per cent of the population. The Labour Force Survey 4 1. Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) Survey 1999 2. Planning Institute of Jamaica (2005) Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2004 3. Ibid 4. Statistical Institute of Jamaica (2004) The combined early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment rate was 75.5 per cent, (77.0 per cent for females, 71.4 per cent for males), and the adult literacy rate was 79.9 per cent CHAPTER 1: PROJECT CONTEXT AND RATIONALE 1
The Labour Force Survey revealed that the youth unemployment rate, at 26.4 per cent, was more than three times the adult unemployment rate of 8.6 per cent. revealed that the youth unemployment rate, at 26.4 per cent, was more than three times the adult unemployment rate of 8.6 per cent. However, examination of the unemployment data for the last 10 years showed that youth unemployment declined by 7.7 percentage points, while the adult unemployment rate declined by 1.1 percentage points. The female youth unemployment rate (34.2 per cent) continued to be higher than the male rate (20.6 per cent). The Jamaican youth face a number of challenges within the education/training system including: • inequities in the quality of publicly provided secondary education; • gender imbalances in education (methodology, subject choices and performance); • peer pressure and socio-cultural norms which devalue education and learning; and • an upsurge in school-related violence across the island. The problems inherent in the system impact the Jamaican workforce as: • 77.3 per cent of the labour force and 70.2 per cent of first time job seekers have no vocational, technical or professional qualifications; • 20.1 per cent of Jamaican adults are illiterate and another 15 per cent possess only basic numeracy skills; and • 142 000 youth are outside of the education system and labour force, of which 5.0 per cent of these youth did not go beyond Grade 9. 5 One of the main findings by Anderson (1997), was that “youth unemployment is no longer pegged to adult unemployment, but constitutes a phenomenon of its own . . . the conclusion is that planning for youth employment cannot be approached only as a spin-off from total demand, and that special programmes must be developed to address this problem”. The main options that are available for school leavers include entry into the labour market and enrolment in: private post-secondary institutions; the National Youth Service (NYS) programmes; HEART Trust/NTA programmes, Community Colleges, and public and private tertiary institutions. Government’s recent efforts to address youth employment problems include the development of a National Youth Policy, and the re-establishment of the National Youth Service (NYS), inter alia. 5. Fox, Kristin (2003) Mapping Unattached Youth in Jamaica (Draft) IADB THE TRANSITION OF JAMAICAN YOUTH TO THE WORLD OF WORK 2
Page 2 and 3: THE PLANNING INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA I
Page 4 and 5: Contents List of Tables List of Acr
Page 6 and 7: List of Tables Table 1.1: Distribut
Page 8 and 9: Table 4.4: Participation in Differe
Page 10 and 11: Acknowledgements The Planning Insti
Page 12 and 13: M E S S A G E F R O M Director Gene
Page 14 and 15: Executive Summary The School-to-Wor
Page 16: women with special emphasis on yout
Page 21 and 22: . . . the Government of Jamaica has
Page 23 and 24: • demographic and household infor
Page 25 and 26: Sample Selection It was determined
Page 27 and 28: ended question. The post fieldwork
Page 29 and 30: The average age of the youth survey
Page 31 and 32: The distribution of youth by parish
Page 33 and 34: ecorded was six; this was reported
Page 35 and 36: An important factor in transiting f
Page 37 and 38: Working” youth and 1.7 per cent o
Page 39 and 40: the training lasted for “more tha
Page 41 and 42: Work Experience When asked “Have
Page 43 and 44: This question was directed solely t
Page 45 and 46: Table 3.4: Distribution of Not Work
Page 47 and 48: Table 3.6: Conditions Necessary to
Page 49 and 50: Job Preferences Table 3.8 provides
Page 51 and 52: Table 3.10: Average Length of Job S
Page 53 and 54: 4 Life Goals and Values of Young Pe
Page 55 and 56: nificant differences in these opini
Page 57 and 58: Community organizations are not ver
Page 59 and 60: Table 4.7: Frequency of Use of Sele
Page 61 and 62: 5 Regression Analysis The objective
Page 63 and 64: Table 5.2 : Variables Used in the L
Page 65 and 66: There were no significant differenc
Page 67 and 68:
Results The partial logistic regres
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6 Conclusion and Recommendation In
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public education programme be devel
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There is unmet demand (within the H
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A corollary activity should be the
Page 77 and 78:
findings, it is being recommended t
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GOJ/ILO School-to-Work Transition S
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• inner city schools should be in
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• information technology should b
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Career Guidance • critical assess
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1.10 What is the OCCUPATIONAL STATU
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2.6 Have you had any school-based v
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3.1 Have you ever received any kind
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4.0 LIFE GOALS AND VALUES OF YOUNG
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4.4 I would like to ask about your
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3.0 JOB SEARCH AND ATTITUDES AND EX
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3.10 Did you have a preference for
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4.0 LIFE GOALS AND VALUES OF YOUNG
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OBSTACLES RANK 1 No education 2 Uns
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4. Through a government employment
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21 Other (specify) ________________
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5.4 Are you financially supporting
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3.11 What was the minimum level of
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4.4 Do you have anyone helping you
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4.15 Does your business/enterprise
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4.31 What is the main problem you f
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3. $10,000 — < $15,000 4. $15,000
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10 Working/living in other countrie
Page 147:
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