To get more youths employed, gov’t urges companies to get special certification

In a bid to get more young people employed, the Ministry of Labour is urging companies to ensure they are issued the certificate of Masters of Apprenticeship by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

Subject minister, Joseph Hamilton on Wednesday explained that this special certification will allow companies to properly train people they hire.

He revealed that the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) and Chinese-owned Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI), were recently issued this certification.

According to Hamilton, companies must be registered with the Ministry of Labour before persons can work be placed as apprentices at the company.

“The Demerara Harbour Bridge [was] made a master about two weeks ago and I have said to them that I want them to focus specifically on the corridor that covers Bagotstown, Agricola to see how we can help to fashion young people to be better citizens. That is the task I have given them,” Hamilton told reporters at the sidelines of an event at the Regency Suites Hotel in Georgetown.

According to Hamilton, apprenticeships are part of a wider plan to get young people to acquire skills that can be used to further boost Guyana’s construction boom in the housing and prolific oil and gas sectors.

Minister Hamilton also reminded businesses that BIT is the only authority in Guyana that “can appoint apprentices for training.”

“You have to be registered to allow for apprentices to come on your premises to be trained,” the Labour Minister emphasised.

He also said that companies should get involved in offering this type of employment because it gives employees knowledge as to how a job is executed and the employers do not have to spend time training a new employee.

According to Hamilton, this is a great venture for young people because the oil and gas companies oftentimes need employees who are skilled to perform at a certain level and when employees are trained as apprentices, they learn the skill with the specifications required by the company.

Meanwhile, other initiatives that the ministry has embarked on include programmes under BIT for persons to acquire skills in Fibre Optics and to become solar panel technicians. Thus far, some 17 persons who received the training were employed by GTT and ENet and some 75 women were trained for the latter in Regions Eight and Nine.