Journalists with 10 years plus experience to be offered GOAL’s Master programme

Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) Scholarship programme, will see local journalists with 10 years and more experience soon being able to pursue their Master’s Degree. This was the disclosure of GOAL’s Director, Dr. Jacob Opadeyi, on Wednesday, during the final day of the National Media Conference and Symposium, at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).

“Actually, we are looking to have a rolling admission system that can start now and we wait until the university grants the person the admission,” Dr. Opadeyi explained. The professor disclosed that the GOAL secretariat has been in talks with an international university in Germany and the Texila University in Guyana to offer the courses.

Dr. Opadeyi said that while the studies will be made available in a number of communication fields, the admission for the programmes will be done at the university’s discretion. “I am sure other universities are looking at the same thing, because UWI (University of the West Indies) does the same thing,” Dr. Opadeyi explained.

The GOAL’s Director revealed that professionals will have to submit their Curriculum Vitae (CV) that shows the years of service. The information will be forwarded to the respective learning institutions. He disclosed that the GOAL Scholarship was conceptualised under the PPP/C Administration in 2021, with the aim of providing 20,000 online scholarships within a five-year period.

It was noted that the dynamic move is a commitment made by the government to provide opportunities for educational development nationwide. As such, it was revealed that over 8,000 citizens applied for the free-online programme within the first year of the scholarship launch. The GOAL’s Director revealed that approximately 5,000 persons are qualified for the GOAL scholarships this year, out of the 6,000 who applied thus far. Further, $1.3B was approved for GOAL in Budget 2022.

Additionally, the government through GOAL, partnered with eight new institutions to meet the challenges and demands of various sectors in Guyana. Dr. Opadeyi said that this includes the oil and gas sector, engineering and construction.