BIT to provide more opportunities for differently-abled persons

The Ministry of Labour, through the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) programme, will be providing training and employment opportunities for differently-abled persons.  

Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton on Tuesday met with members of the National Commission on Disability (NCD) at his Brickdam office in Georgetown.

The consultation sought to establish a master plan going forward, discussing the development of a framework for implementing a series of vocational and skills training courses for persons with disabilities.

Following the engagement, Minister Hamilton told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the ministry plans to collaborate with the NCD to promote a job fair that will target PWDs before the end of the first quarter.  

He said apart from the firm partnership with the commission, more measures will be implemented to ensure all persons living with disabilities receive gainful employment after completion of the BIT programme.

“The ministry will work with the commission to ensure that we can have persons [who are differently abled] across the country exposed to training that we do and to ensure that we can make them employable and to see how we can help them to get employment,” Minister Hamilton noted.

The minister further underscored that the objective is aligned with the government’s manifesto commitment to deliver equal opportunities to citizens, by providing greater support to vulnerable groups.

“They want to be productive citizens and therefore when we train them, we have to work with the system, both public and private sector, to ensure that they can be employed without stigma,” Minister Hamilton added.

The job fair will be hosted primarily in Regions Three, Four, and Ten, with the labour ministry’s Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA) playing a major role.

Chairperson of NCD, Ganesh Singh, and Executive Secretary, Beverly Pile were among the officials present at the engagement.