Gov’t equipping youth to lead Guyana’s future – VP Jagdeo tells student forum

– At the Guyana Energy Conference

Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has underscored the government’s commitment to empowering the nation’s younger generation with education opportunities, ensuring they are equipped to lead Guyana’s future.

During a Youth Forum hosted at the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo, he expressed these assurances, where students from secondary, tertiary, and technical institutions directly engaged him.

The forum provided youths with a platform to question the government’s oil and gas policies and familiarise themselves with employment opportunities available within the sector.

When asked about the government’s investment priorities, Dr Jagdeo highlighted that significant focus is being placed on improving healthcare, infrastructure and housing, which are essential to sustaining national prosperity.

Key to this prosperity is a highly qualified human resource pool, which is why, according to Dr Jagdeo, the government is making educational opportunities available, including improving infrastructure nationwide.

He added, “We have made university education free. Not just university, but this year we removed fees from all technical institutes … because we believe that young people if equipped with the skills … can prosper in the future.”

Within this context, the vice president highlighted several opportunities that have been made available to young people.

These include the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) which has provided nearly 30,000 Guyanese with tertiary education in leading institutions globally.  Guyanese have also benefitted from the Get Read for Opportunities to Work (GROW), he Women’s Innovation & Investment Network (WIIN) and the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) initiatives.

“There is no restriction on the amount of money we will spend on educating our people,” VP Jagdeo underscored.

According to him, under these four programmes alone, approximately 50,000 Guyanese have benefitted.

Students had also questioned what is the government’s stance on protecting the environment, to which he said, “Producing oil and gas would help us to adapt to climate change. It would help us to drive prosperity, and expand investments in other sectors. But it’s not going to destroy the natural beauty of our country.”

In fact, the government’s policies are guided by the expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, a framework intended to map the path of a new growth trajectory in a non-polluting way.

VP Jagdeo also highlighted various investments across multiple sectors, ensuring the economy is diversified to sustain economic growth.  Youths were also encouraged to seek opportunities in a number of technical areas, including engineering, welding and supporting services, that will see them earning a lot more.