UG, other institutions form higher education consortium

• To prepare for first oil

DPI, Guyana, Monday, November 19, 2018

The University of Guyana (UG) today teamed up with twelve other educational agencies to form the Higher Education Consortium on Engineering and Mining (HECEM).

According to UG, in consideration of the national development needs of Guyana to provide high-quality education and professional development training for the expanding oil and gas, mining and extractive industries in the country, the institutions have agreed to form the association to collectively address national development issues through education.

Group members include the Council for Technical and Vocational Education, Critchlow Labour College, Technical Institutes in Berbice, Essequibo, Georgetown and Linden, the Guyana Industrial Training Centre and the Ministry of Education. ‘

The objective of the consortium is to foster and promote academic collaboration aimed at supporting the pursuit of strategic national agenda. The grouping will also develop new curricula and joint programmes to address the national development needs in the areas of engineering, oil and gas and mining. It will also explore new matriculation criteria for programmes and serve as a centre for harmonising the efforts and sharing of resources among member institutions.

University of Guyana’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith said in its preparation for Petroleum Engineering degrees to commence in January 2019, the institution has begun hiring lecturers for the course.

“It is important that as we pursue those journeys and prepare for first oil and beyond, we build a partnership with government, we build a partnership with international and we build a partnership with industry.”

The VC said the university is conscious of the importance of “moving beyond the first step” and of the importance of having equal actions along the way to supplement those first steps in oil and gas.

 

Alexis Rodney

Images: Jules Gibson