Heavy duty equipment operators’ training expands

Some 112 persons were on Monday inducted as the third batch of trainees under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) Heavy duty equipment operator programme 2025.

If these persons successfully complete the programme, they will join some 16,000 persons trained by the Board over the last five years. Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton underscored the importance of being disciplined in their pursuit of success.

The programme comprises of 16 weeks of training and will culminate with each graduate receiving a certificate and license to operate four heavy-duty machines.

“For you to succeed, young men and women, the most important attribute is discipline, if you are indiscipline you done fail already…you can’t learn if you present yourself as someone who is difficult to teach,” Hamilton said.

The Labour Minister said this is a massive investment by the Government of Guyana to have individuals from all ten administrative regions trained, comprehensively to improve their livelihood. Some $6.8 million was invested for this programme and since 2020, a total of $22.4 million was spent.

“In some areas, people are exposed to actually five pieces of equipment, you will be exposed to four, first it used to be excavator and smith stare in the last two years, we have added, forklift because in oil and gas, if they don’t have any forklift operators, there will be no oil and gas. That’s an important skill in not just oil and gas, in many sectors, and we want to expose you to a front end loader,” Hamilton said.

He noted that of the 112 persons, 20 of them are women and said the increase of women in the mostly male-dominated fields is incredible.

Further, he said efforts to restructure curriculums in the school system to ensure that persons are exposed to skills training early on are underway.

The Labour Ministry has partnered with institutions, namely, the Guyana Industrial Training Centre and the Georgetown Technical Institute, to deliver training in Region Four.