Submitted by Roslyn Shepherd
Post Covid 19, we need to look at matters from a different perspective rather than rehash and complain about the scary economic and financial reality. Big business is all about profit, not about the outlay of money without a future gain. Against the contraction in business, banks will continue to sell off shares and/or downsize and move most of their business to automated platforms. More than likely, unemployment will continue to increase while wages contract. We need to bring a different approach to acquiring skills as well as the work world.
It is all about attitude and developing passion as well as looking for your niche; so said a technical guy I know. He expands this thoughts, saying I believe in layering a foundation of base skills that interlace and allow the fluidity of moving between disciplines as well as the cross borrowing of ideas with the benefit of seeing broader possibilities for solutions. To this end he decided to conquer six (6) skills, all of which he started at the same time. The aim was to get a feel of them as well as to determine whether the selection suited his skill set. It was accepted that all could not be done at once. His approach was supported by the fact that the first curriculum for the first degree was done by someone without a degree and that his non-traditional approach of charting a different pathway might not lead to work but could be of help to those who needed it. Covid interrupted the order of things so he switched to learning programming and electronics especially manufacturers preferred program language and combined that knowledge with what he had previously learnt about sensors, actuators and building devices to help in agriculture. He continues to incorporate electronics into different agricultural methods.
Wanting to help, he reached out to Barbados representatives in the prior government to ascertain how he could partner with 4-H programs. No one responded. His focus is now on helping his country of residence provide food for a food bank.
He concluded that we do not know how to evaluate talent and this will be part of Barbados’s down fall. My suggestion is that we must fast track the acquisition of that skill quickly.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.