Restructured BIT changing lives – Min. Hamilton

Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, MP, said the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) has successfully restructured its programmes to empower women and girls and meet the job demands in Guyana.

Speaking with DPI recently, Minister Hamilton said the transformation has resulted from partnerships with several government entities that offer technical and vocational programmes.

“We want each other to know what we are doing so that we are not running over each other in a community because I believe that if any one of the entities is running a programme in a village. We need to complement it not to set up a similar programme in that village… as I speak to you. We have over 80 young boys and girls are being trained at Kuru Kuru Training College.”

Minister Hamilton emphasised that the lack of cooperation among relevant stakeholders had affected the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes.

“People were doing their little things in their silos, and that wasn’t getting the type of output that the nation needed.”

To this end, labour officers were spread out across the country to ensure participants of training programmes are assisted in their respective regions.  Previously, the process was offered in Region Four only, which frustrated and deterred interested persons.

“We have moved beyond [installing labour officers] where we are now setting up labour offices so the Board of Industrial Training will be one feature of the labour office. What we are attempting to do is to have a labour office in all departments and part of the structure will be a training centre for BIT and we have proceeded in that regard.”

Recently, thirty-six persons were trained to function as BIT and Occupational Safety and Health, labour, and Co-operative Society officers.