CXC–employer agreement aims to ready youths for modern workforce

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has signed a partnership engagement agreement (PEA) with four major regional employer bodies, a step intended to bring the region’s education systems closer to the needs of a fast-shifting global labour market.

The pact aims to narrow longstanding gaps between what schools produce and what employers require, as well as to strengthen young people’s preparedness for work and their wider role in society.

Speaking for the consortium of Caribbean employer groups, Jamaica Employers’ Federation President Wayne Chen said the agreement formalises years of collaboration between employers and CXC, even as the pressure for reform grows.

“Going back for well over a decade, the Caribbean Examinations Council has reached out to the region’s employers, because there was a concern shared by all that the output of our formal education systems was not ready for the world of work. The imperative has grown stronger over the years, initially sparked by the high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment,” he said.

Chen was addressing the opening ceremony of the 2026 CXC Ministerial Forum at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Thursday. He argued that the region’s economic and social systems continue to expose weaknesses in preparing young people for the future.

He added that the accelerating spread of technologies such as artificial intelligence had sharpened the need for rapid adaptation.

“[AI] is just the latest threat to our long-held beliefs in our long-held practices. It reminds us that, not only do we have to collaborate … We have to find ways to adapt even more quickly to the rapidly changing world that we are living in,” Chen said.

But employers’ concerns stretch beyond workforce readiness. Chen stressed the need to develop young people as capable and responsible citizens.

“We’re concerned about creating people, citizens, who are not just ready for the world of work, but ready for the world of citizenship, of responsible, productive, creative, self-fulfilling, prosperous – whatever superlative you can put to it – citizens,” he said. “Because, even before we are employers, we are citizens of these countries … Caribbean people who want our countries to develop in a holistic way.”

He urged regional administrators and policymakers to accelerate the pace of reform, warning that failure to keep up with global shifts could drag the Caribbean into “underdevelopment and despair”.

The signing of the PEA, he said, signals a shared commitment to dialogue and partnership to ensure that Caribbean youths are better equipped to lead in an increasingly volatile global economy.

The four regional employer umbrella bodies partnering with CXC are the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation, the Caribbean Network of Chambers of Industry and Commerce, and the Caribbean Institute for Human Resource Management.