Beating the odds!
– 28 Youth Graduate from ICT training
– First Lady charges students to integrate technology with existing sectors
DPI, Guyana, Monday, December 9, 2019
Region Eight has a second batch of newly trained Information and Communication Technology- competent adolescents with 28 youths joining the corps.
The four-week workshop was conducted by the Office of the First Lady, in collaboration with the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
First Lady, Her Excellency, Sandra Granger, reminded the students to use every opportunity to integrate ICT into existing sectors to aid their development.
She said this could be achieved through software engineering, business analytics and building business relationships, agriculture, agro-processing and technology as well as the finance and humanities industries.
The First Lady also urged the young women to be unafraid of critics, and to take up the mantle and prepare for the future they will inherit. She added that jobs traditionally dominated by women were going to be taken over by technology and they need to be ready.
“Never be afraid to step forward. Be assertive,” Mrs. Granger charged them. “…know that when you are equipped with the requisite knowledge you are in a position to speak and always keep learning because technology is changing everyday, there is nothing to keep you from moving on in the world.”
Fitzroy Young who served as a trainer, and Aisha Peters, who was the Robotics trainer both remarked that the students have grasped the concepts and can apply them in the real world.
Regional Executive Officer, Mitzy Campbell reiterated President David Granger’s plan for all youth in Guyana to benefit from avenues for higher education. This, she said, was a sure means to national development.
“You never stop learning. The skills you have must be the [engine] for your upward mobility,” Campbell added.
BIT Chairman Clinton Williams pledged the agency’s continued support for similar projects.
This is the sixth ICT workshop of its kind completed in 2019, representing a deliberate effort to prepare Guyanese youth for new and emerging technologies worldwide,
Thirty students initially enrolled in the programme and were drawn from four communities in the Mahdia sub-district, namely, 111 miles, 104 miles (Princeville), Micobie and Campbelltown.
Participants received instruction in Literacy, Numeracy, ICT, STEM/Robotics Soft skills, Microsoft Office, Micro-enterprise and Sexual and Reproductive Health, among other areas.
The graduation was held at the Mahdia Secondary School.