With the aim of equipping persons, including miners, with the skills to effectively navigate and read maps, the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Incorporated (GMSTCI) is offering a new, free course.
In an interview with the News Room on Tuesday, course instructor Nathan Indarsingh said during the course miners are exposed to positioning and demarcation of dredges, prospecting and other exploration work.
Participants are also shown how to record coordinates from maps to put them into a GPS and to use those coordinates to guide their navigation.
“….Without a working knowledge of map reading and the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) that would be a very difficult task. It will be very difficult to do it, very difficult to record it and it would be impossible to draw any result from it,” Singh explained.
“The course actually teaches participants how to read maps, how to use the maps, how to navigate (maps) and the GPS is now a tool that is applied alongside the maps in order for them to do the navigation,” he added.
Already, more than 200 applications have been received.
The course was initially designed to target miners but persons from various agencies such as the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Bureau of Statistics joined as well.
“We want people to leave here with good knowledge of how to find coordinates and locations from any map,” Singh said further.
Police Officer, Anthony Baird, who is attached to the GPF’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID), told the News Room that he is participating in the course to overcome difficulties experienced in the execution of his daily duties.
“We would visit crime scenes in various parts of the country so it would be very helpful mostly when it comes to the interior locations,” Baird said.
“Once we were in the interior location and it was very difficult in finding a specific location because it’s not that simple as if you are on the road in the more populated areas like Georgetown…. where (there are) streets signs and names,” he explained.
Classes runs for a one-week period and are free of cost. To qualify persons are required to have basic literacy skills.
Upon successful completion, participants are given a certificate.
