$2.5B earmarked for TVET in 2023
With the increasing need for human resources given Guyana’s rapid economic growth, Senior Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh disclosed that government has earmarked $2.5 billion for Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programmes in the 2023 budget.
“The importance of Technical and Vocational Education Training to our economy cannot be understated, Guyana is currently growing rapidly, and we need a skilled population to further accelerate this growth,” Dr Singh said on Monday.
This year’s TVET budget increase of approximately 19 per cent is consistent with government’s job creation efforts and forms part of the manifesto promise of providing 50, 000 new jobs while enhancing the well-being of Guyanese.
In 2022, the sum of $2.1 billion was spent to increase training programmes offered by TVET institutions across the country, and approximately 3,655 persons were trained under these programmes.
Since taking office in 2020, the government has been diversifying the workforce through various policy initiatives that have been upskilling Guyanese, especially young people, to meet the skilled labour demands in all sectors. TVET has been accelerated as one of the key aspects for Guyana’s growing labour force demands.
Minister Singh, further stated that because of this realisation, the PPP/C administration will continue to invest heavily in TVET as a much-needed investment because it will improve the government’s response to labour market demands while providing employment opportunities for many Guyanese.
Additionally, “Construction works are already progressing on Instructional Centres at Beterverwagting, Fellowship and Hopetown, and Practical Instructional Departments are being added to the North West Secondary, Bartica Secondary and St. Ignatius Secondary, which are all expected to be completed in 2023” the minister stated.
Work will also commence on the construction of a Guyana Technical Training College at Port Mourant, which will be the premier institution offering oil and gas training. An additional amount of $488.5 million is also allocated for the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) to expand training programmes in 2023 for 7,890 persons.