Labour Minister encourages retirees to enroll in skills training programmes

After considering the challenges persons face post-retirement Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton is encouraging retirees to enroll in programmes offered by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

In a telephone interview with the News Room on Thursday, the Labour Minister said his ministry is aware that persons have mortgages and bills that must be paid even after retirement and for this reason skills training is offered to persons of all ages.

“People that are 55-years-old are strong, healthy people.”

“People want to do something else, they want to continue with their lives. Some of them might have bills, they have mortgage at 55. How are they going to pay?”

Hamilton reasoned the need for persons to be given opportunities to learn new skills even after retiring.

“We have to create the condition for them to be retrained and reskilled,” the minister said.

“What we have done with all the programmes now is that a person who is a retiree can join the programme.”

He explained that the ministry has multiple training programmes in every region with labour officers available for persons to reach out to for information about these programmes.

One of the programmes is expected to commence on August 25 at Orealla, East Berbice, Corentyne.

Among the skillset that BIT programmes offer are technical and vocational training, entrepreneurship and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) through collaborative efforts with Regional Democratic Councils (RDC) and other stakeholders.

The retirement age for public service workers in Guyana is 55-years-old. But over the years persons have gone into retirement as early as 50-years-old.

Hamilton has been advocating for the retirement age to be changed to 65 to give persons more time to contribute to society.

“We should be having a conversation about raising the retirement age to 65. Some countries have already done that. A person at 55 doesn’t want to relax,” he further added.