Labour Ministry seeks to create opportunities for job seekers

Mar 14, 2010 News

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– conducts three job fairs in Region Six

The Labour Department of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, in its quest to improve on the services it provides to the people and make available opportunities for job seekers, conducted three Job Fairs in Region Six as part of its outreach programme to provide access to training and employment opportunities.
The workshops were held between March 13 and 16.
The exercise, which was led by Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, follows similar activities that were held in Regions Three, Four and Seven during 2009.
The fairs which were established at three locations including Fact Building, Corriverton; Spready’s Supermarket, Port Mourant; and Danzie Shoe Store, New Amsterdam; provided residents, especially job seekers, with the opportunity to access training, employment opportunities and counselling and testing for HIV and AIDS.
The general public, employers and workers were also given a chance to learn about the Ministry’s Labour Laws, especially as they pertain to overtime, holidays with pay, safety and health protocols and child labour.
The various departments of the Ministry including the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRNM), Labour Occupational Safety and Health and HIV/AIDS were engaged in this aspect.
Minister Nadir, in a comment during the exercise, said that the initiative started in 2009 where the Ministry’s Labour Department had taken its services to the public.
He noted that taking the Ministry’s services to the people allows for greater response than with the use of public advertisements.
“If you got a half of a million dollar advertising campaigns in the media we don’t get that kind of response and more particularly for us it allows our service to be easily accessible to people,” the Minister explained.
The Labour Minister pointed out that thus far the exercise has received overwhelming response from citizens and the use of local television programmes will further reinforce the works that the Ministry is undertaking.
Minister Nadir noted that during a survey which was recently conducted on the services offered by government agencies, especially as it relates to training, findings have shown that many persons are unaware of the services being offered.

“It reinforces the position that we have taken to go out to people and promote more of the services… in fact in the age group we have targeted for youth employment it says close to 65 percent of the people is young people who these programmes should reach but they don’t know about them…we are heartened that Berbicians in particular…have been actively coming out to register for jobs, training, getting tested and to generally pick up information of the services that are available by the labour portfolio,” Minister Nadir stated.
This year, he said that the Ministry will seek to train 2,500 people of which 2000 will be trained under the NTPYE programme and 500 under the single parents programme. The Ministry is expected to achieve these targets this year, the Minister said. He is also urging Non-Governmental, Youth and Faith based Organisations to encourage persons to take advantage of the Ministry’s services that are available.
“We are again opening an invitation to NGOs, Youth, Faith based organisations and any civil organisation…if you have similar programme…get in touch with us and let us see how we can complement each other with the services that we provide to the people,” the Minister urged.
Meanwhile, Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, BIT, Alana Brassington, while providing an update about the training opportunities available through the Ministry, highlighted that the BIT Board will be celebrating this year its 100th anniversary. She said that BIT consists of training programmes including a two-year apprenticeship programme, the National Training Project for Youth, Empowerment (NTYPE), as well as the single parent training programme.
Brassington said that the NTYPE programme caters for youths between the ages of 15 to 25 years who have not completed high school while the apprenticeship programme exposed youths to a variety of skills during their attachments to work places for a period of six months and are paid a stipend.
The single parent training programme on the other hand caters for single parents who are registered on the Ministry’s database.
She said that single parents who have registered on the database can follow up with the Ministry to reiterate their commitment to continue the programme which will begin in a month’s time.
Rajpaul Jaggai, a resident of East Bank Berbice, who visited the fair to access services, lauded the initiative since it gives young people especially early school leavers and persons who are unemployed an opportunity to have a job and improve themselves.
During an invited comment, Jaggai said, “It gives young people a chance to enroll and train to be somebody and to be employed with companies. This is something good the Ministry is doing by bringing the service to Berbice and giving Berbicians an opportunity which I think they didn’t have quite a while back for young people and also people who are seeking employment.”
Elvina Shivlochan, a single parent and resident of Berbice who also visited the site to seek employment, praised the Ministry for such a programme and said that she will be encouraging other single mothers to access the service. (GINA)

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