Department of Youth clarifies statements on Inaugural Job Fair

Georgetown, Guyana – (April 11, 2019) The Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, hosted a press conference with members of the media.

The press conference was held to provide information on solutions which the Department of Youth (Department) is implementing to combat the challenges of unemployment faced by the nations’ youth demographic.

Director of Youth, Ms. Melissa Carmichael, notes, with great concern, that certain media houses have chosen to misrepresent what was expressed during that interaction and wishes to bring clarity to the information disseminated by those media houses.

The Inaugural Job Fair is an initiative of the Department which seeks to provide the space for young people to interact with potential employers. It is the intent of the Department that the process of securing employment will be less tedious, by allowing potential candidates to be screened and interviewed on site. The companies and agencies present will determine suitability and subsequent employment.

It should be understood – the Department did not, under any circumstance, promise to provide any number of jobs for applicants; placements are ultimately the decision of the partner companies. The Department simply provided the environment and will continue to do so with other initiatives which seeks to empower the young people of Guyana.

The application process provided equal opportunity for applicants to register and be a part of the employment drive. Further, it was estimated that a number of 200 applications would have been received, however, that expectation was surpassed, as the Department received over 600 applications.

Along with companies from the private sector, The Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency will be on site to register interested applicants for potential job opportunities within the public sector.