Opposition Leader and Kandrian-Gloucster MP, Joseph Lelang has made a call to the Government to re-assess the number of skilled manpower in the country, since the country’s education system is not responsive to the requirements of the country. He made this statement adding that it is not enough in terms of producing the kind of skills that are required in certain predominant fields of expertise and called for a national Manpower Assessment Report to be considered by the Government. “The last National Manpower Assessment Report [NMA] was done in 1989. That’s 34 years ago.” He said the NMA is a document that looks at what skill sets institutions are producing and tailoring them to suit the Labour demand of the nation. Lelang said this was done through scholarships to target and produce the necessary amount of manpower needed in the targeted industries. “I believe that it is about time that we should be looking at re-assessing the skill sets of manpower we have in this country, find out how many Doctors, how many Lawyers, how many Veterinarians, how many Engineers.” “These are important. And then we look at what our institutions are producing, and we try to match them out.” The opposition leader said this used to be the work of the Department of Labour and Employment with the support from the Treasury and Finance department but since then this has not been held. Write to PNG HausBung