Minister Hamilton promises Technical and vocational training centre for Port Kaituma

The Labour Ministry will be establishing technical and vocational training centre in Port
Kaituma, Region One (Barima-Waini).
This was the revealation of labour minister, Joseph Hamilton on Tuesday. He was at the time
having an engagement with the Matarkai Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) at the Port
Kaituma community centre. NDC Chairman, Mr. Orlando Thorne, Deputy Regional Executive
Officer (REO), Matarkai Labour Officer, Mr. Clement Adams, newly appointed Occupational
Safety and Health (OSH) Officer, Mr. Chavez Daniels, and Board of Industrial Training (BIT)
Officer, Region One, Mr. Trevi Leung attended the meeting.
The labour minister pointed out that an area has already been identified in Port Kaituma to
established the training centre, which will also house the ministry’s sub regional office. Minister
Hamilton said that currently, a number of training programmes are being rolled throughout the
sub-region. This, he said is in keeping with the government’s vision of empowering citizens at
the community level to make meaningful contributions to society.
Hamilton said that the programmes are being administered by the Board of Industrial Training
(BIT) which is mandated by Industrial Training Act to provide apprenticeship training to
citizens. The labour minister said BIT plans to train some 3,000 persons and the hinterland
communities will not be left out. To this end, he said the ministry has recruited a BIT officer who
will be responsible for spearheading programmes in the Matarkai and Mabaruma sub-districts.
“These programmes are there and we want communities to make full use of them. Get the people
together form groups and we will train the people base on their needs, because we don’t impose
programmes on communities,” Hamilton told those attending the meeting. He noted that BIT
currently conducts training in more than 150 skilled areas in keeping with the technical
workforce needs of the country. Minister Hamilton added that over the past year, the agency has
expended its programmes to cater new industries.