Labour Minister – BIT training is a way of serving your country

Graduation last Friday from the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) saw sixty (60) students
graduating, in two courses namely caring for the sick and elderly and customer care and
hospitality tour guide.
Labour Minister, Joseph Hamilton in delivering the feature address said the BIT training
programme is not a favour to the participants, but is the Government’s way of fulfilling its
promise of providing competent service to citizens. “Nothing we do for you is not what we
should be doing… we don’t think we (are) doing you a favour by training you.  I, as minister
believe that is my duty to do that…I have a responsibility to do that…,” the minister said. He
continued, “We believe that we pledged to give service to you and this is one part of giving
service”.

Minister Hamilton appealed to the graduating class to give service to their community, region
and the country as a whole. He noted that the government is not just saying it will train persons
in various fields, but is also putting the necessary institutions in place for training to occur. “We
are not just saying we will train, but we are putting the structures in place to ensure that people
are going to be trained, somebody say, why train all these people? Where (are) you gonna find
the jobs for them? Wisdom says have the skill so when the job comes you can apply for
it,” Hamilton declared. The labour minister noted that the training will be useful to help them as
it will earn them a living and will enable some to venture out on their own and develop
businesses. He said that persons trained in courses like garment construction are also being
trained to “save”, since they can now sew clothes for their children and themselves. “For us who
are at my age, we have brought this country to a good place. I believe, you young people you
have to take it to a better place, that is your responsibility, for yourself, your children and the
country,” Minister Hamilton said.
Regional Chairman of Region Six, and Chairman for the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), Mr.
David Armogan said that the rapid developments in economic activities will create demands for
trained and qualified persons to serve the country. “There are many economic demands and also
we are utilising money to invest in agriculture, to invest in manufacturing, to invest in other
services, and so therefore we want to ensure we have trained, capable and qualified people to
take up new divisions that are going to be created,” Armogan noted. Armogan stressed that all
courses done through the BIT programme will tremendously help them to earn a living using the
skills acquire during the training programme.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BIT, Mr. Richard Maughn gave the charge to the
graduating class. “I charge you to remain focused…and for you to focus you have to discover
what is your purpose and what is it you want to do and once you know that, you have to remain
focused,” Maughn urged. The BIT CEO also told them to be confident and believe that they can
achieve all the goals they would have set out to accomplish.
He disclosed that the four-month courses were funded by the Labour Ministry, through BIT.
These courses were taught by developers of St. Francis community.