Two contracts for the construction of much-needed training centres to upskill Guyanese, mainly those in Berbice, were signed on Monday at the Ministry of Labour Brickdam, Georgetown.
NK Enterprise was awarded a contract for $44.8 million to construct the training centre at New Amsterdam while Perba Trading and Construction was awarded a $39.9 million contract to build a centre at Corriverton.
These buildings, Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton said, are important for the development of skills training across the country. He said they are designed to uphold Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) standards.
The training centres are being built under the Board of Industrial Training.
“It is the first time the Board of Industrial Trading will be constructing and erecting their own training facilities,” Hamilton said.
“We are building a training facility not a residential building. We have to build this building and the training rooms to the standard of the CVQ [otherwise] its useless we build a training facility. We have to build a facility that is at the level of the Caribbean,” Minister Hamilton said.
Region Six is currently the focus of massive transformation and according to the minister, these centres will provide specialised training with modern equipment to qualify persons.
While these new buildings are being constructed, the minister said that there will be upgrades to other facilities across the country. He pointed out that the Unity, East Coast Demerara training facility will soon be equipped to upskill and qualify persons who are involved in technical fields with certification.
“My fear is that we might be building buildings here where the contract stipulates that unless the contractor is unaccredited he cannot come to work here and therefore they bring someone from Philippines to put in the toilet bowl and I don’t want that,” Minister Hamilton said.
He also thanked the municipalities of each areas for making the land available for the ministry.
In addition, the minister pointed out that Perba is a woman-led business and he said that he was pleased about this as BIT and the ministry continues to encourage women to participate in the hard skills sector.
