IT centre of excellence for first quarter of 2017

GINA, GUYANA, Thursday, January 12, 2017

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications in collaboration the eGovernment Agency is working to transform Guyana into an information based society. The unit intends to operationalise the Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) during the first quarter of 2017. The Centre is located at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus.

The modern training facility for public service employees is a collaborative initiative between the Government of India and the eGovernment Agency.

Presidential Advisor at the eGovernment Agency, Floyd Levi, says that training of trainers will begin soon.

Levi said that experienced Information Communications Technology (ICT) professionals will be targeted. “With these professionals they will in turn train the younger generation, so we are looking for persons who can pass on the knowledge to others which will be the selection criteria, for experienced ICT professionals who are equipped and have the knowledge to train,” he said.

In relation to students who will be trained, several criteria will have to be met before they can be selected for training.

Levi said that the Unit is looking to increase the number of ICT engineers who would normally do networking, and application development websites services.

“Those persons we are looking at who would have already been trained, most likely at University of Guyana (UG) or maybe through a university overseas. So we are looking at university graduates and also looking at persons at the technician level, persons who would have developed themselves who would have gone to training courses here in Guyana to work on hardware and networks and so on”, Levi said.

Additionally, Levi says that the Centre of Excellence will also train persons in Microsoft Office and any other office type management systems as needed.

$160 M has been allocated for the Centre in the 2017 National Budget.

The building had to be renovated to accommodate classrooms and other facilities for the teaching of ICT courses. The eGovernment Agency will furnish the CEIT while the Indian government will provide the ICT equipment.

The CEIT will offer advanced ICT training in the areas of networking, cyber security, software development, IT project management among others. Training will b conducted over a two year period. The eGovernment Agency will be the administrator of the facility.

By Gabreila Patram