Jamaica Gov't launches $1 billion public sector graduate scholarship programme

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke has officially launched the Marcus Garvey Public Sector Graduate Scholarship Programme.

During the press release ministry said, the programme will offer 30 graduate scholarships each year for the next five years for public sector employees and has an estimated cost, over the five-year period, of J$1 billion.

The scholarships will be tenable at the University of the West Indies, Mona and the University of Technology in Jamaica; Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University in the USA; and King’s College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, the ministry added.

The Scholarship Selection Committee will be chaired by Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen. The Marcus Garvey Public Sector Graduate Scholarship, as first announced by Clarke during his 2020/21 Budget Presentation in March, was conceptualised as a strategic human capital development initiative. The scholarship offers public sector employees the opportunity to obtain a postgraduate degree at the master’s level from appropriately accredited universities in Jamaica, North America and Europe.

Scholarship recipients will pursue graduate studies in programmes of study aligned with Jamaica’s national priorities and strategic objectives.

Clarke noted “To the best of my knowledge, this is the largest and most ambitious graduate scholarship programme in Jamaica’s history. As we strive towards greater levels of efficiency in our public service and by extension a better Jamaica, the Government of Jamaica is investing in building the human capital of our public service.”

The first of its kind to offer fully-financed Government scholarships available only to public sector employees. It will be used as a tool to help attract, motivate and retain qualified staff in the public service. The administration of the scholarship includes a mechanism to ensure that recipients commit to adequate time in the Government service to allow them to employ, and transfer where applicable, their new skills and qualifications, according to the ministry.

President of the Jamaica Civil Service Association, O’Neil Grant, in upholding the programme at the launch, encouraged his membership to apply and use the scholarship as an opportunity to take bigger steps in their professional development.