Following decisions made by the Guernsey States Assembly last week, teachers, accountants and many other roles previously limited to five-year medium term employment permits will soon benefit from receiving eight-year long term permits.
The Assembly’s approval of the Committee for Home Affairs’ proposals on population and immigration policy will also mean businesses will have significant opportunities to recruit much-needed staff from anywhere in the world as a result of changes to population and immigration policy and legislation. These changes will open up off-island recruitment worldwide for job types that are currently restricted to British or Irish nationals (or those who possess Leave to Remain in the Common Travel Area), or EU/EEA (European Economic Area) nationals.
These benefits are principally achieved through tying the Immigration Work Permit Policy to the Employment Permit Policy for third country nationals, rather than only EU/EEA nationals as is the case currently. In doing so, local businesses employing to over 250 roles listed in the EPP will have access to a global pool of workers from which to recruit, as they will now be able to recruit to these roles from anywhere in the world rather than being restricted to CTA and EU/EEA countries only. This has the potential to help businesses combat recruitment challenges experienced since Brexit and the pandemic.
Deputy Simon Vermeulen, Vice-President of the Committee for Home Affairs and also the tourism lead for the Committee for Economic Development, said: “It is well-known that the hospitality sector has had significant challenges in recruiting the staff it needs since Brexit, which resulted in EU nationals needing a visa and therefore made the UK and by extension the Channel Islands less attractive to this important workforce, and the pandemic.
“Through our cross-committee work on the Population and Immigration Policy Review, we have sought to make it far easier for businesses to access the global workforce. This presents a significant opportunity for the hospitality sector in particular to expand its recruitment efforts.”
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, said: “It is simply not possible to recruit the number of teachers we need to educate our young people from on-island only. We are re-invigorating our own on-island teacher training programme, but we have always needed to attract good-quality teachers to come to live and work in the island and in recent years teachers have largely received five-year medium term employment permits.
“The removal of MTEPs will lead to teachers receiving an eight-year long term employment permit and a route to permanent residency. This is a positive change for the Education service, as we need to use every available tool to try and sell the island to potential candidates in a very competitive recruitment space.”
Deputy Nick Moakes, Committee for Economic Development member who leads on the finance sector, said: “While the island has other barriers to the successful recruitment of the staff our most prominent industry needs, specifically the current housing challenge, securing long term employment permits for many finance roles instead of the previous five-year cap is a boost to many employers at a time when government needs to demonstrate its willingness to do everything it can to supports the economy.”
Following the States Assembly’s approval of the Committee for Home Affairs’ policy letter, the Committee will now introduce the necessary regulation and policy amendments to bring these changes into effect.
