Graduates Face Months-Long Job Waits
Territorial At-Large Representative Stacy Mather warned during debate on the 2026 budget estimates that returning Virgin Islands graduates are encountering long delays for employment — sometimes months — which risks driving young people to seek opportunities overseas. He urged the government to ensure the 2026 budget produces tangible results and to fix slow hiring and approval processes that undermine young people's confidence in building careers at home.
Territorial At-Large Representative Stacy Mather has sounded the alarm that young Virgin Islanders who return home with tertiary qualifications are being forced to wait months for work — a pattern he says risks accelerating a brain drain from the territory. Speaking during debate on the 2026 budget estimates in the House, Mather recounted a recent conversation with a local who was told they would have to wait six months for employment. "Yesterday, I had a conversation with a Virgin Islander who returned and was told six months," he said, using the example to highlight a wider, systemic problem.
Mather said the long-standing advice to leave the Territory, gain qualifications and come back to contribute is becoming less persuasive. "When a young person in this territory cannot exit, go to college, get a degree and come back — that’s why they leave," he told lawmakers, stressing that education must remain a reliable route to opportunity.
The representative contrasted the experience of returning graduates with that of Virgin Islanders who relocate abroad and can "hit the ground running." He warned that if the Territory does not make jobs and career progression affordable and accessible to its own people, those opportunities will go to others. "If we do not make it affordable, if we do not bring it back to our people, who are we going to give it to?" he asked.
Mather also pointed to slow government processes — delays in approvals and employment decisions — as key factors eroding young people's confidence. He said these bureaucratic hurdles, combined with limited entry-level openings, are prompting many to question whether they can build careers, buy property or establish long-term roots in the Virgin Islands.
Using a metaphor, he warned: "When you make it too far for your people to reach the fruit, they are going to go somewhere else." Calling on the incoming 2026 budget to deliver tangible results, Mather urged the Territory to move beyond mere encouragement for graduates to return. He said systems must be put in place to absorb the skills and training of young people — a message that resonates with residents concerned about workforce sustainability, housing affordability and the future economic health of the BVI.
As debates on the budget continue, Mather's intervention highlights a central challenge for policymakers: creating concrete pathways from education to employment so that young Virgin Islanders can build lives and futures at home.
Primary source: BVI News