Introduction

Mr Holland, Director, National Workforce Development Agency for the Cayman Islands, and new PASCAL Associate, reflects on the role of the newly formed National Workforce Development Agency (NWDA) for the Cayman Islands.

Role of The National Workforce Development Agency

The National Workforce Development Agency (NWDA) is a new Government entity with a critical mission of being ‘a valued partner and facilitator in the training, development and employment of Caymanians.’  The goal of the agency is to support job seekers to access, maintain and progress in employment while building up the human capital potential of the country’s workforce to become a globally competitive labour pool.

 NWDA acts as a workforce intermediary to meet the needs of job seekers and employers.  Though the agency addresses all industry sectors, NWDA creates job links and identifies training opportunities in key economic sectors nationally, including tourism/hospitality, financial services, construction and health care. There are six programmes within the agency’s direct remit: 

• The National Job Link Programme,
• National Training Programme,
• National Scholarship Programme,
• National Internship Programme and, to be unveiled in 2015, the National Mentorship Programme and National Apprenticeship Programme. 

Though the agency has a relatively small staff of 12 key professionals, NWDA works with job seekers at all status of employment to encourage them to move toward self-sufficiency. The agency works to address the barriers to work faced by the long-term unemployed, persons with a criminal record, or those who have not previously accessed the labour market.

 Sharing Experiences

 Mr Holland brings to NWDA over 25 years of experience in the analysis, design, finance, implementation, management and planning of adult education and human capital development strategies. 

 Mr Holland self-identifies as a reflective practitioner-scholar and is excited to be part of the PASCAL International Observatory community

 His central research interests are:

• economic and workforce development strategies at national and sub-national levels; partnerships between educational institutions and employers;
• alignment of human capital investment strategy with regional economic development; policy design and systems building;
• comparative approaches to build and expand educational and economic opportunity for disadvantaged youth; and
• urban/regional political economy and social policy. 

These interests cross into a number of PASCAL’s themes and policy areas. In particular, the management of Place, which involves ‘mustering all the resources being invested there to support and nurture community strengths and assets in ways which promote prosperity for that place and community’ (See: http://pascalobservatory.org/themes/place-management).

Note: The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory with a population of 54,397[1]  For more information visit the official government site.