Scholarships will upskill Guyanese for oil sector – VP Jagdeo

Vice President, Hon. Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says the 20,000 online scholarships being offered by the Government, will prepare Guyanese for the coming oil and gas sector.

Dr. Jagdeo made the remark during a recent interview with local commentator, the Guyanese Critic.

“We have 4,500 scholarships being offered this year. We will take resources to pay for the certification of Guyanese in many areas, so that they can be easily trained; to conduct or to bring the people in to conduct classes where they improve the skills of Guyanese, but in a very practical way, to deal with the industry.”

The Vice President said the training of Guyanese for the petroleum sector is high on the Government’s agenda. During a recent meeting between the Government and ExxonMobil, the VP said discussions were held on the need for the oil company to establish training facilities in Guyana. This, he said, will represent Government’s commitment to ensure Guyanese are prepared for the sector.

Dr. Jagdeo also spoke of an “indigenisation plan,” which will help locals get petroleum-related jobs, currently dominated by foreigners. 

“We hope that a lot of the jobs that are being created by the oil companies now – where they have to recruit foreigners – that overtime, once Guyanese have the comparable skills, that they will replace those individuals.”

The online scholarship initiative is a PPP/C’s 2020 election manifesto promise to provide some 20,000 scholarships to Guyanese over the next five years.

Education Minister, Hon Priya Manickchand said Thursday that this year’s batch of 4,5000 awardees will begin studies in July.  

Guyanese can apply to pursue studies in over 80 programmes being offered through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL), from five internationally-acclaimed universities. They are the University of the West Indies Open Campus, the University of the Southern Caribbean, the University of Applied Sciences, the Indira Gandhi National Open University and the JAIN “Deemed To Be” University.

Programmes are offered from the Certificate to PhD levels.

Application forms are available on the Ministry of Education’s website at www.education.gov.gy.  The GOAL website will be launched this week to facilitate the submission of digital applications.