Who will fix our electric cars and green energy equipment?
Labour Minister, Vincent Wheatley, has expressed concern at the absence of a local labour force to meet the needs of green jobs that are on the horizon for the BVI. He said the existing reality is that climate change is going to cause a paradigm shift.
“As we go towards a zero-carbon emission, it means more electric cars, it means more solar, it means alternative energy. These things don’t currently exist in any large amounts here,” the Labour Minister said recently.
“Let’s say the BVI is full of 2,000 solar electric cars. Who is going to fix those cars?” Minister Wheatley asked.
He said training persons for these types of jobs must be contemplated now, so when the situation occurs, the BVI would already have trained personnel to repair electric vehicles.
According to the minister, this training would not only be for vehicles but for a wide spectrum of other ‘green energy’ items such as solar panels.
“When you got our government buildings and they’re all solar panels, when things go wrong, who is going to fix them? Are you going to import persons to fix these things or are you going to train our people in these new technologies?” Minister Wheatley questioned.
He said all of this is in addition to some technologies that haven’t been developed yet but will need to be developed to help combat climate change.
“So we must all be looking ahead as to what are the skill gaps that exist now and those that are going to come later on and get our people prepared. That’s why we have the Labour-Education Connect, to examine exactly where we are heading and how best to prepare for when we get there,” the minister added.
“Let’s say the BVI is full of 2,000 solar electric cars. Who is going to fix those cars?” Minister Wheatley asked.
He said training persons for these types of jobs must be contemplated now, so when the situation occurs, the BVI would already have trained personnel to repair electric vehicles.
According to the minister, this training would not only be for vehicles but for a wide spectrum of other ‘green energy’ items such as solar panels.
“When you got our government buildings and they’re all solar panels, when things go wrong, who is going to fix them? Are you going to import persons to fix these things or are you going to train our people in these new technologies?” Minister Wheatley questioned.
He said all of this is in addition to some technologies that haven’t been developed yet but will need to be developed to help combat climate change.
“So we must all be looking ahead as to what are the skill gaps that exist now and those that are going to come later on and get our people prepared. That’s why we have the Labour-Education Connect, to examine exactly where we are heading and how best to prepare for when we get there,” the minister added.
