Min Teixeira appeal to residents to take advantage of Govt’s training programmes

Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven) residents have been urged to upskill themselves and be
prepared for the massive ongoing transformation in the country. They were further urged to take
advantage of the many free training programmes being offered by government.
Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister, Gail Teixeira, was in the region at the weekend,
where she held meetings with several communities including Bartica, Itabali, Two Miles, River’s
View, Agatash, Batavia, and other surrounding villages. Teixeira noted that government recently
passed a national budget that will project Guyana’s transformative agenda. She noted that the oil
and gas industry, will require jobs from qualified persons.

“We need to train our people and the government is offering those training programmes,” the
minister said. She continued, “When it comes to the GOAL programme, we came, we talked to
people in Region Seven, we had over 300 applications, 276 got awarded GOAL scholarships.
We have the WIIN scholarship for women in business and getting into business and training, we
had representatives from this region, I think about 30.”
Minister Teixeira stressed that the WIIN scholarships will be advertised in March, but
registration for the GOAL scholarship is ongoing. She pointed out that the Board of Industrial
Training (BIT) through the Labour Ministry, is offering training in a number of areas in technical
and vocational education and training (TVET). The minister told persons who dropped out of
school and are skilled were encouraged to become certified.
“You are not being judged, what we encourage you to do is to put yourself in order, go back and
study. Go back and look for programmes that offer you English and Mathematics. I am not
saying go back to school but there are programmes you can do that will give you English and
Maths so that you can apply to do other programmes,” she appealed. Teixeira added “We must
not see this as, for persons who dropped out of school, as that is it, do whatever comes your way.
There are possibilities to improve yourselves and to improve your families. And so, we want to
make sure that everybody in Guyana has access to these training programmes.”
She added that in the recently approved 2022 budget, $74.4B will be invested in the country’s
educational system.