Over 1000 persons to benefit from climate change careers

Georgetown: A total of 1,080 (540 females/540 males) persons will be direct beneficiaries of training in the areas of water and coastal management, eco-tourism, agriculture and construction.

(From Left) Richard Maughn, CEO/Secretary (ag), BIT, Clinton Williams, Chairman BIT, Floyd Scott, Director, Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Milica Njegovan, Senior Program Officer, Colleges and Institutions Canada.

This was disclosed when the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), the Council for Technical Vocational, Education and Training (CTVET) and representatives of the Government of Canada met to discuss the prospects of implementation of the Skills to Access the Green Economy (SAGE) Programme in Guyana on Wednesday.

The meeting was to identify areas that can affect the smooth execution of the programme. Discussion was also centered on BIT’s Apprenticeship Programme.

The SAGE Programme which is funded by the government of Canada was developed in 2019 and concludes in 2024.

According to BIT, its objective is to create a high quality labour force, through the support of a demand-driven technical and vocational education and training (TVET), with the need to develop key careers.

These careers will surround the introduction of climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives across Guyana, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Lucia.

The programmes aim is to see adolescent girls and women, youths and vulnerable populations including indigenous people become more competitive and adapt to climate change.

SAGE would engage the participation of at least 30 small and medium size enterprise, in gender equitable workforce by focusing and delivering gender sensitive skills training programme that meet economic and environmental needs in Guyana.

The SAGE Team was happy to know that the Board of Industrial Training has been providing Apprenticeship Training since 1910 in accordance with the Industrial Act, Chapter 39:04, adding to the labour force a total of 1,469 artisans within the last nine years.

According to them an existing Apprenticeship Programme would provide a smooth implementation of SAGE.

The Board of Industrial Training (BIT) welcomed the SAGE initiative, since it fully coincides with their plans to implement training programmes to develop skills for the engagement of green jobs.

Further, residents of Linden in Region # 10 would benefit from an Agro-processing Training Programme scheduled to start during the month of May, 2019 under the BIT’s NTPYE training programme.

BIT is calling on stakeholders to show their full and continuous support to this programme.