The difficulty in finding skilled workforce is admittedly a top concern for business. In the light of this, the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized and hosted a debate in which various aspects of this complex problem were raised and suggestions were made for its gradual mitigation. The panel of discussants, besides the Chamber’s Industry Vice-President Charalambos Pattihis, included the Labor Director at the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance Alexandros Alexandrou, the Director of Secondary Technical and Vocational Education of the Ministry of Education Elias Markatzis, the Director General of the Human Resources Development Authority George Panagidis and the Cyprus Chamber representative in the board for post-graduate programs Panagiotis Papafilippou. Questions, queries and viewpoints were tabled by the audience, , which consisted for the most part of representatives of interested member companies of the Chamber.
Opening the event was an introductory address by Limassol Chamber President Costas Galatariotis, who stated among others that the Chamber's initiative had to do with the established needs of the members, as reflected in the Chamber Business Barometer. Mr. Galatariotis described the Barometer as a useful tool in the formulation of Chamber's policy, and pointed out that the coexistence of many job vacancies on the one hand, and several thousand unemployed people on the other, was a matter for reflection and discussion as to what needed to be done.
Among the short-term actions that emerged as appropriate from the discussion were the closer co-operation, and more direct communication, between enterprises and the Post-Graduate Vocational Education and Training Institutes, with the Chamber as an intermediary. The article that follows, which is a concise presentation of the Post-Graduate Vocational Education and Training Institutes, is a first step in that direction.
