Almost $40M for BIT Training in Berbice

Over 350 persons from East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six) will benefit from Technical and Vocational Education and Training this year, through the Ministry of Labour’s Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

Minister, Hon. Joseph Hamilton, made this disclosure on Tuesday, during his engagement with several beneficiaries of the BIT programmes offered at the St. Francis Community Developers Headquarters, Port Mourant, Corentyne.

Minister Hamilton said almost $40 million has been earmarked to facilitate some 30 programmes for the prospective beneficiaries in the Ancient County.

The BIT provides training in over 100 areas, including garment construction, carpentry, electrical installation, masonry, cosmetology, catering, information technology, mechanics and heavy-duty equipment operation.

The Minister said the agency plans to strengthen its collaboration with stakeholders to enhance and expand its programming capacity.

He said the Ministry would be “utilising skills that are with other institutions….  The cooperation and the collaboration cannot stop, it will be intensified. I don’t just gyaff.

The fact that I am here, the fact that we just came from the GuySuCo training Centre, shows that it’s a collaboration and we mean business.”

Participants at the St. Francis Community Developers Headquarters, Port Mourant, Corentyne

Minister Hamilton said BIT offers training to all Guyanese, despite their location. Like other agencies and institutions across the country, he said BIT intends to partner with the GuySuCo Training Centre in Berbice to add more features, where students can learn and earn effectively.

“The students can go to school from morning to about 2 o’clock and after 2 o’clock they are working to earn, so that their stipend can be better, and the gentlemen can be paid better, and GuySuCo itself is gathering its own funds, and that is where we have to go.

Reskilling, retraining, certification, accreditation, collaboration and cooperation, those are the issues at the level of policy,” he added.

Minister Hamilton urged persons participating in training programmes to complete their training.