BIT, private sector entities to offer gold mining training in Region Seven – Min. Hamilton

The Parliamentary Committee of Supply Wednesday evening approved $1.3 billion for the Ministry of Labour to continue its commitment to capacity building, human development and workers’ rights.

Of that amount, some $500 million will go towards upskilling Guyanese in various technical fields through the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

One groundbreaking programme that the country will see the training of persons in gold mining operations in Region Seven. This is a collaboration between the Ministry’s BIT and the Reunion Gold Corporation.

Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, explained that expansion of the BIT training facility at Mongrippa Hill, Bartica will be refurbished to facilitate this training.

“We are about to sign the MOU very shortly but we have had discussion and they have visited the facility twice. Just last week, one of their directors came from Canada visited the facility and I suppose they will help us develop and put it in a way to allow for the necessary training that they want us to do,” Minister Hamilton stated.

The training will be focused specifically on residents of Cuyuni-Mazaruni and facilitate between 10 to 20 persons.

Meanwhile, ten women will be identified from each region to complete training, through the BIT programme, to become top trainers in photovoltaic systems.

This, specifically, will be done in collaboration with the International Development Bank (IDB) and will be supervised by the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).

“These 10 women will become a master of the arts of solar panel technology and installations and repairs in Guyana. That is the intention,” Minister emphasised.

“This is coming off a programme we did for the IDB supervised by GEA where we trained 75 women in the same programme in Region Seven and Nine,” Minister Hamilton said.

Additionally, the Ministry of Labour is discussing with the Ministry of Finance for the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) to do joint programmes.

One programme has been completed in Region Six in heavy duty operation. The two ministries have been engaging in discussion to create a framework to develop this programme.