Worried about job situation on the Brac
What is being done about the lack of employment on Cayman Brac?
Auntie’s answer: I know that the issue of employment, or the lack thereof, is important, especially for our young people finishing school and entering the job market. The end of summer can be a difficult time of year for our recent graduates as many face the prospect of unemployment.
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I also know that every government calls tackling employment a priority and looks at ways to prepare Cayman’s youth to be job ready upon finishing school. I am not, however, going to fill up space with recounting what has and hasn’t been done and by what party.
Instead, I am going to turn this back on you. The elections are coming up sooner than you think. This will become painfully obvious as candidates start to emerge and the airwaves and news media become flooded with campaign rhetoric. With all the information that will be made available, it should be your responsibility to go out and hear what each candidate plans to do to create jobs and opportunity.
Attend forums, listen to the various platforms being promoted. Then ask questions and don’t stop until you are sure you understand the different plans. The candidates have to convince you to choose them so please do not be afraid to speak up. Ultimately, they will be working for you, after all.
If you haven’t already done so, register to vote. You can get all the information you need about the process at the Elections Office website.
I implore you to vote in the May 2017 elections. I know it is easy to feel cynical about nothing ever changing whichever party is in charge, but look at it this way: If nothing else, I believe the fact that you vote gives you the right to complain out loud all you want about what is or is not being done under the next government. If you choose to sit at home instead, then as far as I’m concerned, you should only be allowed to stew in private.
Category: Ask Auntie
Almost a year later and nothing has changed…
The answer to Cayman Brac’s employment situation is certainly not employing 50 interns to work part-time for Government. There is very little substantive work for these interns to do and it leaves them with too much time for phones and chat, chat, chat. It’s not fair to them. It creates a horrible work ethic. The little bit that interns actually do takes away from the work that a fulltime employee is supposed to be doing. Government needs to make the intern program competitive where only 2-5 positions are open and each applicant should have to have at least some experience in the private sector bagging groceries, waiting tables, etc. That’s right! By the time a child reaches 11th or 12th grade, he or she should have some type of part time job. Also, Cayman Brac’s employment situation will never be solved when the island has to live by the laws and regulations that were adopted for the world’s 3rd largest financial centre. The Brac is a totally different environment with different needs. Then there’s the issue of underemployment, but that’s for another article.
The only people in Cayman Brac not working are those that don’t want to work and NAU needs to stop supporting their lazy a—–.
The government has just hired a slew of support assistants in the schools. Fortunately, I do believe that at least a third are Caymanian…..
The old Divi Tiara remains a decomposing eyesore. Government could lease it, cheap, or convince the owners to allow use without pay, in light of the fact they should be taking care of the problem in the first place. Hire locals to work at demolition/refurbishment. Create a minimum-security prison and/or halfway house. Emplyees would need to be hired, and people from Grand would come here to visit relatives.
No one would get NAU help if jobs available at the site and they refused the work.
There are jobs available on the Brac, ‘Aunty’ is avoiding the issue, XXXX
The problems are complex: Those who did not do so well at school, or simply do not want to leave the island could get jobs at the gas station, the hotel and at least one of the supermarkets; but Brackers will not work for $5 an hour, they would rather do nothing.
Those who passed some CXuationCs might hope to get a job ‘with government’, say in District Administration. That only works for the ones with the right family connections.
In any case it is only a matter of time before enough politicians in Grand Cayman realise that the Brac only survives by the majority of the working population being on the government payroll. The teachers teach the children of the other civil servants, the doctors (FOUR of them) and nurses treat their illnesses, PWD maintains the roads and buildings for them all to use. It is economic incest.
Even Scott Development, the only significant private employer, ships most of their product to Grand Cayman.
The land is no good for commercial farming and tourists are few; the hotel doesn’t have to make a profit; it exists only for the memory of the founder.
So if someone can come up with an answer and the funding to solve the Brac’s situation they had better appear soon or it will be too late.
CNS note: Auntie is not who you think it is.
I see young people from Bulgaria or Armenia for example waiting tables in the Cayman Islands. I don’t think it ever crossed their minds to ask the same question. They just got busy and found jobs in the Cayman Islands for example.
Reason being young Caymanians won’t do such job are because of their pride and their popularity. They don’t want anyone to see them doing such jobs! It’s a pitty actually. I am a native of CB, currently living in GC because of better opportunities here. When I was in CB I work three jobs at one time, yes 3! All were part-time jobs unfortunately, but from time I graduated HS I had employment. I never sat at home thinking jobs would come and find me!
Yeah, if I go out and work the social services will stop giving me money. Why work if u can stay at home and get money?