By Sue-Ann Wayow
APPROXIMATELY 200 applicants were successfully hired to work on Swiss global cruise liner MSC Cruises from Trinidad and Tobago.
Together with local company Meridian Recruitment Agency, the cruise liner embarked on a recruitment drive in April that saw more than 3,000 persons applying via its online portal.
Chief executive officer of Meridian Charles Carvalho told AZP News on Tuesday, “We had a 98% successful confirmation by the MSC. The overall commitment from MSC is that they were totally satisfied with the way we vetted the candidates and our organization process throughout the three days event.”
Interviews were conducted last week from Wednesday to Friday.
The successful candidates would soon be receiving their official letters of engagement, Carvalho said.
Although the cruise liner could not hire everyone who applied, there will be more opportunities in the near future for citizens to work on cruise ships, he added.
The most recent was also one of the largest for the cruise ship industry in Trinidad and Tobago Carvalho said.
He said, “Persons did not come for an interview. They came to get a job and they needed to sell themselves. A lot of people hired actually got higher positions than what they were expecting.”
Carvalho told the story of one woman who had only $20 on her person to pay for her taxi fare to travel to the interview location at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain. Telling her story to the taxi-driver, he refused to take the fare from her. She landed a job.
Another confessed that he did not have any certificates behind his name. He too received a job.
Carvalho said, “This is an opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago to not only work on cruise ships but to get international exposure and to build on their knowledge, skills and work attitudes and to bring that back to Trinidad and Tobago to enhance our workforce here.”
MSC senior recruitment agent Virginia Grimaldi speaking at the close of the drive said it was very successful and she thanked Meridian for partnering with them to source the necessary personnel describing the recruitment drive as “one of the best this year.”
The recruitment drive has the support of the Ministry of Tourism as it said that it will help to boost economic recovery, creating employment opportunities for the tourism sector.
It was indeed a pleasure working alongside both the candidates and the MSC recruiting team over the three days