Young people urged to pursue vocational careers
GINA, GUYANA, Friday, October 21, 2016
The Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GITC) today hosted a Career Day to mark its 50th Anniversary. It was an opportunity for the training centre to showcase some of the skills that young people can acquire at the centre.
The training centre will be celebrating 50 years on December 14, 2016 and the theme for this year’s celebration is, ‘Development and Transformation for the 21st Century Workforce”.
Students look on as a welder showcase his training
Administrator for GITC, Dexter Cornette, speaking with the Government Information Agency (GINA), noted that the training centre has graduated some 12,000 students in seven disciplines over the last 50 years.
He said when the centre was established, courses were taught over a six-month period and a few years later it moved to one year.
The seven disciplines which GITC offers are -furniture making, metal working, engineering, masonry, plumbing, electrical and wielding. Females make up two percent of the total student population.
Cornette said that the GITC is a level one institute which carters for persons who are currently in school, persons who are in the industry and who want to be certified and persons who are 15 -20 can attend the centre for full time training.
The GITC Administrator said that in 2005, the training school put together a computer programme because they realized that computers were coming on board and that persons needed to become computer literate. He said all full time trainees are exposed to two hours of training per week.
GITC provides a stipend for all their full time students to offset transportation expenses.
Cornette said that GITC graduates are in high demand. “From time to time there are companies that call us and ask us to provide them with trainees who would have already completed training, and they take them on. (In) addition to that, when they go on work study during the July-August period, there are a lot of companies who ask them to come back as soon as they finish training especially for those ones who would have performed creditably, very well” Cornette said
Today’s Career Day, saw the participation of a number of agencies including the Guyana Defence Force. Captain, Daniel Seeram, said that the
Members of the Guyana Defense Force are geared up as they await patrons to visit their booth
army was hoping to recruit trainees with specialist skills. “Basically, we are here to demonstrate and present ourselves to the students of the GITC in the various specialist skilled areas, that they can probably be a part of on joining the Guyana Defense Force,” Seeram said.
Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) Monitor Inspector, Mark Roberts, said that they have been participating at most Career Day and Open Day since they are responsible for occupational standards. “The council has been invited to most of the Open day and Career Day training programmes at all the institutions and we display most of the things that we do at TVET. One of it is Occupational Standards, we develop and implement occupational standards in all of the institutions in Guyana,” he explained.
Welfare Officer of the Government Technical Institute (GTI), Alero Proctor, said that GTI offers life skills. “What we want also to let the general public know, that GTI is the institution that anybody should want to be a part of because the skills that they learn they can take it through life,” he said.
GITC plans to add AC and Refrigeration repairs and Radio and Electronics to its 2017 Curriculum.
By: Gabreila Patram