Human Capital Strategy being finalised to address labour shortages

President Dr. Irfaan Ali says Guyana is in the final stages of developing a comprehensive human capital strategy to tackle the country’s labour shortages, including the shortage of healthcare workers.

The President was at the time speaking on a podcast, The Rest Is Politics: Leading with Alastair Campbell, making him the first sitting President from the Americas to appear on the show. This podcast deals with British and global politics.

When asked by the host about plans to get the diaspora back in Guyana, the President said, “We are now finalising the human capital strategy which is linked to the migration strategy and the type of human capital that we need.”

President Ali explained that the strategy will also identify the skills and expertise the country needs now and in the future. Focusing specifically on the shortages in the healthcare sector, the President said his government is building the capacity to train workers to meet future demand.

“You know the world is going through a crisis; in healthcare for example, nurses are moving around globally, the UK is recruiting heavily. In the Caribbean and in Guyana, we have all suffered from that. So, we have those same challenges because we are building out a modern healthcare system that requires specialists and specialisations, certain quantity of nurses,” President Ali explained.

But while the government is currently building capacity in the health sector, there are still shortages.

“So, whilst we are building out our capacity to train nurses, pharmacists, technologists, doctors, to meet this future requirement, in the medium term we will have and we have major shortages and we have been recruiting,” the President explained.

He further noted that the human capital strategy will also reshape the education system to better produce the skills required in health and other sectors.

“We will understand what gap is there and where are the potential areas to recruit human capital to fill the gaps,” President Ali said.

Earlier this week, the Head of State expressed confidence that nurses and other healthcare professionals who left Guyana for better pay overseas will return as local opportunities improve.