Schools and colleges must focus more heavily on helping students to see the lucrative benefits within the quickly growing green economy space, the minister for culture has suggested.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture, Senator Dr Shantal Munro-Knight made the call at the launch of the Barbados Community College’s (BCC) College Expo held on Monday.
She highlighted the transformative impact of the green economy, which contributes $7.2 trillion to the global economy, and stressed the importance of agility, critical thinking, and innovation among students, particularly in the quickly changing economic climate for small island developing states (SIDS).
“The development trajectory for small island developing states is always going to be challenging, but I think that we can all agree that this particular movement in our history is perhaps more complex, more nuanced, more coloured, than at any other time,” she said. “The challenges that you face, that we face together as we make our way in this global society, is one where we have to be extremely careful of , but as well extremely aware of that path that we have to be able to take to succeed. Both at the national level and individual level.”
She underscored that with climate change continuing to be a reality for small islands, traditional job structures will continue to evolve, and nations must leverage local skills, talents, and resources to remain competitive.
Senator Munro-Knight said: “It is changing the way jobs are created, it is changing the types of jobs, and it is changing who would get those jobs that are being created in this particular environment. According to statistics, the green economy and green jobs currently make up $7.2 trillion of the global economy. But it also suggests that we are going to lose almost five per cent of man hours continually up to 2030, because we will have to deal with the daily impact of climate change.
“The statistics also suggest that small island developing states will have a competitive advantage if we can leverage one the skills, talents, and resources we have to make our way in the current environment. It also suggests as well that there is unfair and unequal access to the technologies that we will need in order to harness that competitive environment that exists. There are contradictions in the current space.”
Given the mounting challenges seen globally within the work force, students must be encouraged to be nimble in their approach to their studies, the culture minister declared.
“We do not just need students who come out with certificates, and students who would enjoy the experience of going through the educational framework, but we students who are agile and think critically as well, she said.
“That knowledge economy means we can be successful and that we can compete through the generation of ideas and through innovation. It therefore opens up a space for small island developing states that have not been traditionally competitive in a global economy based on goods and services, that we now have an opportunity to be able to innovate our way to success.”
(SB)
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