More than 100 persons with disabilities graduate from BIT
Thursday, April 18, 2019
A total of 108 persons with disabilities from the David Rose Special Needs School graduated in various skill set from the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) programme.
The graduates received their certificates in areas including leather craft, computer skills, basic cosmetology, basic sewing and basic wood making at a graduation ceremony held on Wednesday, April 19, 2019 at the David Rose Special Needs School.
Minister of Public Affairs, Dawn Hastings-Williams in her address condemned the societal stereotypes created around persons with disabilities, where they are discriminated to participate as leaders within different sections of societies or rejected when seeking employment.
“Persons with disabilities are capable to develop an array of skills, abilities and competencies in order to become economically independent and healthy member of a society. Person with disability is a synonym of opportunity, you are unique in your own way, never believe otherwise. What is relevant is not on the outside but on the inside,” Minister Hastings Williams encouraged the graduates.
Minister Hastings-Williams applauded the work of BIT, teachers, specialists, administrative staff and those who ensured that the batch of students were well taken care of during their training and contributed to their success. She noted that though the government cannot provide jobs for everyone, those with skills can become entrepreneurs or find other ways of gaining employment.
The training falls under BIT’s National Training Programme for Youth Empowerment which was launched in 2006 with the objective of providing competency based technical vocational education and training.
Chairman, BIT, Clinton Williams said the programme was launched to address the dire surges of entry level technical skills for the public and private sector. He pointed out that in keeping with the laws of Guyana governmental organisations are mandated to provide appropriate vocational measures which serves to enhance the skills of persons with disabilities while enabling them to be favourable for available productive and remunerative employment opportunities in the national labour force.
BIT’s partnership with the Guyana Council for Organization of Persons with Disabilities is not a new initiative, he added.
“This partnership started in 2014 and saw persons with disabilities trained in Regions Two, Four, Six and Ten. During the period 2016 to 2018 a total of 400 persons became technically skilled in computer repairs, cosmetology, wood working, mechanical type repairs,” Williams explained.
According to Williams BIT been partnering with numerous public and private sector companies for over 180 years. The agency will continue to maximize outputs for training by utilizing all of the available resources including the Government Technical Institutes, Industrial Training Centres, the Guyana Sugar Cooperated, Forestry and Kuru Kuru training centres, practical instruction centres, most of the recognized Non-Governmental Organisations and catering companies among others.
BIT is aiming to graduate more than 25,000 persons from various regions by the end of 2019.