Georgetown: Three Hundred youths are to benefit from a partnership between the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) and the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security’s National Training Programme for Youth Empowerment (NTPYE) to create a wider skills witin the forestry sector.
According to Chairman, Board of Industrial Training, Clinton Williams, the Board of Industrial Training has been very successful over the years in providing vocational training and education to a large number of youths in every region of Guyana, equipping them with marketable skills in various occupations.
The Board was established more than 40 years ago under the Industrial Training Act, Chapter 39:04 of the Laws of Guyana to provide training opportunities for youths and equip them with marketable skills.
Simultaneously, the Guyana Forestry Commission in accordance with its commitments laid out in the National Forest Plan, has added this programme to the curricula of the Forestry Training Centre Inc.(FTCI) which already offers vocational training.
Williams said this develop is a direct response to the obvious dearth of skills in the forestry sector. Primarily the objective is to equip approximately 300 youths with highly marketable skills that could guarantee their immediate employment within the forestry sector. It is expected to have an impact on the reported high levels of unemployment across the nation.
The occupational training programme is diverse and includes courses in tree identification, pre-harvest forest inventory, directional felling, heavy-duty machine an equipment (Bulldozer and Skidder) operation, wood processing, saw-doctoring, and timber grading. In keeping with national priorities, the courses will necessarily include segments on critical life skills such as combating HIV and AIDS and gender-based violence.
The major portion of the training will be carried out at the FTCI’s field based training facility located on the right bank Mariwa River, left bank Cuyuni River. The BIT will also add this new curriculum to the training schedules at all of their available facilities which have traditionally been used for vocational training and community development.
To date, the response by youths across all regions to these training opportunities has been encouraging. Interviews of applicants have begun and the programme for the first batch of trainees is scheduled to commence in June 2013.
Applications will be invited shortly for the second round of training courses due to commence later this year. The programmes will continue annually.
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