Speaking at the October Entrepreneur Meet-Up hosted by Forge BVI, Labour Minister Vincent Wheatley said he hopes businesses start to hire more qualified local people.

“Part of our plan is to localise our work force as much as possible or as much as practical,” Wheatley said about his government.

“We want to put a system in place where you are told at least three months in advance that you do not need to apply for this particular job or a work permit because there is someone for the job who is local and they were away now they are back,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of HireBVI, Rekeema Turnbull, also shares the same sentiments as the minister. Her company, HireBVI, seeks to provide services to local businesses to help them find more employable people while adhering to the requirements set by the government regarding employability.

She said her company has a job board which is accepted by the Labour Department as a mode of a job advertisement. Turnbull added that employers should follow the rule of finding qualified BVIslanders before seeking foreign employees more seriously.

“We should not just tick a box here but we should actively look for qualified BVIslanders.” The HireBVI CEO said.

“As you know, the ad has to run for two weeks and it expires after six months. So, after that six months, run that ads again and try to find that qualified BVIslander,” Turnbull added.

The entrepreneur linkup last Thursday is among a series of workshops hosted by Forge which seeks to equip local entrepreneurs with the knowledge and expertise to expand their business.

The linkup was about dealing with labour and immigration processes and how employers can easily and manoeuvre the local requirements.