Despite COVID-19 BIT training increased – CEO

The Board of Industrial Training (BIT) has increased tremendously its youth involvement in the
training programmes offered, despite the COVID-19 Pandemic.
BIT’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard Maughn, made this disclosure. He said the growth
is a result of the methods adopted by Labour Minister, Hon. Joseph Hamilton, since assuming
office in August, 2020. Maughn said the joint venture partnerships created between the Labour,
Culture, Youth and Sport and Amerindian Affairs ministries as well as the human-centred
approach with a focus on sustainable development programmes, also played a significant role.
“As an organisation, we continue to try to programme sustainably. So, we consider those
domains of the environment, the economic activities that are happening on the social constraint.
Now, when we look at the way Guyana is going, the Board of Industrial Training is ideally
poised to make an impact in the lives of individuals,” he said.
The CEO continued, “It means that they are the structural change that we are pushing internally,
to make sure that when person train right, they’re able to make the best opportunities or make the
best use of the opportunities that will be derived as a result of what is happening in our economic
landscape in Guyana.” In his DPI interview on Tuesday he stressed that the pandemic did not
slow down the work of the entity, but rather, fast-tracked its plan to provide online classes. This
includes programmes recognised regionally and internationally.
“We will continue to go that way. We can succeed. So, although you have the pandemic
affecting a lot of persons and BIT was no exclusion, our staff have been affected directly and
indirectly by the pandemic. But notwithstanding that, the numbers or average per year have not
changed, instead we would have increased,” Maughn explained.
He pointed out that since launching the online feature, the entity has been able to offer more
online courses, a few of which he said are equivalent to Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
standards. He said that there is also a system in place to ensure BIT programmes receive
recognition from the  Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT).
He disclosed that CTEVT recently certified several persons from a fibre optic technology course
-a non-traditional occupational programme offered by BIT. “In addition to that, all of those
individuals who completed the training successfully were offered employment. Some of them
were employed by GT&T among other agencies,” the BIT CEO noted.
Minister Hamilton and Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai, in July signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide a $39.2M skills training programme targeting
some 440 Community Support Officers (CSOs). He said that about 150 CSOs have already
benefitted from the programme.