REBUILDING VENEZUELA - ROLE FOR THE CARIBBEAN?

6th October 2026

   The conversation I kept hearing repeatedly at Venezuela’s first major oil and gas conference since the extraordinary events of last January was about skills shortages and whether the diaspora would return. It is a similar conversation to one that I often hear in Guyana and Suriname and increasingly in Trinidad & Tobago. These four resource rich countries, spread across the northeastern coast of South America, share both hydrocarbon resources and a lot of shared history, though with some obvious differences as well. 

The changes in Venezuela since my last trip there in 2023 are striking. Back then the country seemed like it was marking time, waiting for something to change. The hotels, restaurants and airport felt empty, sometimes eerily so. People were weary and watchful. Three years later there is a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation, certainly among the Venezuela private-sector delegates who turned out in full force to support the conference. The big Trinidadian delegation who also made the trip were also excited about the prospects. Many were surprised by the contrast between the vibrant, developed Caracas that they discovered and the dire images that they had mostly only seen in the media. 

The excitement about the prospects for the Venezuelan economy was, however, tinged by concerns about the ability to execute on the huge opportunities that exist. Signing new licenses and concessions is one thing; being able to successfully execute and deliver the huge upgrades and restoration of the battered infrastructure is another thing entirely. Venezuelan law requires all companies to have nationals accounting for at least 90% of their payroll; a target that is going to be very difficult to meet especially early in the rebuilding process. Accessing both professional Venezuelan talent and basic skills is a huge concern across the industry. 

The eight million strong Venezuelan diaspora is an obvious source of people to fill those huge gaps. But attracting people home is not going to be easy. It is now over two decades since the first wave of skilled oil industry professionals were pushed out of PDVSA and a decade since the horrors of the dark period, when the entire economy collapsed and so many millions of ordinary Venezuelans fled across the borders, including to Guyana and Trinidad. People have established new lives for themselves outside of Venezuela and children have been born and grown up with new places to call home. With the political future still uncertain, and the state security apparatus still in place, many people will remain wary of returning. 

As in Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, skills development and certification are going to be crucial. In the oil and gas industry, it is often the issue of the availability of graduate engineers and geologists which gets the focus from the big operator companies. Governments often focus on post-school technical and vocational training programmes, looking to boost numbers of young people moving through the training institutions. My sense, however, is that the biggest issue facing the industry is often with the mid-career supervisors and team leaders who are actually in charge of executing projects in the field. This is the generation that is missing across our region, people in their 30s and 40s able to lead implementation and oversee delivery. 

Training school leavers is obviously very important but that is not going to fill this gap in the next decade. We therefore need programmes that focus especially on upskilling workers in the existing labour force. 

Within CARICOM there is free movement for university graduates through the skills certification programme, which works reasonably smoothly. On paper there is also free movement for skill technical workers, but there is no clear mechanism to make this work in reality.  What is required is a region-wide system to certify the skills of existing workers using a competency-based framework and to help people fill any gaps that they might have through focused on-the-job training or evening classes. This again exists on paper, though it is not being implemented anywhere near the extent require.  This needs close collaboration between private-sector companies (often small businesses) and training agencies. 

If we could get the regional workforce-based assessment and certification system really operating as it should, I also think that this could make a small but significant contribution to fixing the Venezuelan skills shortage. There are tens of thousands of Venezuelan workers in Trinidad and especially in Guyana, often involved in low pay semi-skilled jobs in construction, hospitality and retail.  

This Venezuela diaspora could be an interesting workforce to develop for Caribbean companies wanting to enter the Venezuelan market. Getting this labour force upskilled, assessed and certified could give a competitive advantage to Caribbean companies wanting to do business in Venezuela. It is also often a bilingual labour force, which will also be in demand in Venezuela, with the influx of American companies.  

Venezuelan workers should be a target for government skills upgrading and certification programmes. It might seem to Caribbean governments that this will hasten the exit of Venezuelan workers, while we still face skills gaps, but I believe that there is much more to be gained from helping Caribbean private-sector businesses increase their capacity to be able to work in the new Venezuela oil and gas economy. 

The opportunity in Venezuela is huge, and companies need to move fast. It would be great if more Caribbean governments could help them to grab the opportunities that exist.