A U.K.-certified striping technician and trainer, Brian Bostock, has arrived in The Bahamas to help create a robust and strong Bahamian striping industry. Bahamas Striping, the country's leading paint and thermoplastic striping company, contracted the Liverpool-born Bostock to continue training more than 13 young men in the art and science of thermoplastic, to meet a likely demand for $4.5 million of striping over the next five years. The company says it's time for Bahamians to get serious about providing jobs and careers for work that Bahamians are capable of doing themselves. To stop jobs being poached by foreign firms, the company feels it must create a highly skilled Bahamian striping industry.
Bahamas Striping is set to invite other Bahamian striping operators, such as Tinker Enterprise and Sherwin Burrows, to take advantage of Bostock's presence to train their Bahamian crews. Bostock, previously employed by Road Grip, a multi-million-dollar, multi-national striping company, has striped many of the corridors in New Providence and public roads around the Family Islands. Together with Bahamian Striping, he's setting a high goal to provide training for an industry that will be run by Bahamians for Bahamians. Bahamas Striping imported Bostock at great expense even though the company has no thermoplastic jobs pending.
The company says it acted to invest in Bahamians and believes that the new Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration will live up to its election promise and invest in Bahamians as well. Currently, the only thermoplastic work now occurring is being done by the foreign-based company Road Grip, which is working for Jose Cartellone Construcciones Civiles S.A. (JCCC) on the massive New Providence Road Improvement Project. According to a statement published in The Nassau Guardian on March 12, 2011, local Bahamian striping operator Kirk Tinker of Tinker Enterprise said: "Bahamas Striping has little chance [of success] while Road Grip was around." In two years, Bahamas Striping has completed over 60 successful private projects but says it needs work on the massive public road projects to become properly established.
For that to happen, it needs certified experts to train the striping crews to engineer-approved U.K. standards. Newly-appointed managing director of Bahamas Striping, Sean Adderley, said the certified trainer is "the most well-qualified and most experienced striper and trainer to work with Bahamian men on Bahamian roads." Bostock has the necessary U.K. Road Marking Level II National Vocational Qualification. He is also experienced in the training of Bahamians in proper traffic management and safety.
"This is much bigger than just one company. We want to help create a whole robust industry where several operators have the equipment and training to handle any job, even huge airports. We want a situation where Bahamians can look after their own country's striping needs themselves," said Adderley. "With Bostock the sky's the limit as to how many young Bahamians can get world-class training to stripe car parks, airports and roads. He can teach them how to apply and operate machinery for both melted thermoplastic and traffic paint. They'll also be taught basic business skills to prepare them to start their own businesses. We're going to use Brian's skill and experience to invest in Bahamians, just as the current PLP administration is asking the private sector to do. This training is very expensive, but we're standing up to the plate."
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
