Training programmes for South GT residents

Residents of Laing Avenue and Yarrow Dam in Georgetown have been urged by government officials to form a committee to oversee the enrollment of persons into government-funded training programmes.

Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton accompanied Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, Minister with Responsibility for Public Affairs Kwame McCoy and the Director of the Guyana Online Academy of Learning Dr. Jacob Opadeyi to engage residents in the area on Monday.

While addressing the residents, the Labour Minister said that there are 84 programmes, free of cost, under the Ministry’s Board of Industrial Training (BIT). Hamilton explained that these courses cater to all sorts of skills for women and men of varying ages.

“We look to the community to recommend a trainer so that when we are paying somebody, we are paying somebody from the community,” the Labour Minister said.

The residents were told that the training can begin in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Opadeyi urged the teachers in the area to take up scholarships under the GOAL programme and a new programme offered by the University of the West Indies to teach children to read.

“We are doing a programme to educate in the teaching of reading and it’s because most of our children in school cannot read and teachers cannot teach them how to read, so this July- August, we are going to train 15,000 teachers on how to teach children how to read,” the GOAL Director said.

There are over 182 areas of studies including Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, Digital Marketing and E-Commerce, Joinery & Cabinet Making, Garment Construction, Photography, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Event Planning, Healthcare and Agricultural Technology. There are an estimated 13 universities that are partnering with Guyana on GOAL. Dr. Opadeyi encouraged the residents to use the same committee to maintain a relationship with GOAL to find the best fitted programmes for residents.

He said the programmes works with persons to get them certified for another programme if they are not yet eligible for certain degree programmes.