Govt. moves to tackle challenges of managing potential oil industry

Aug 25, 2015 News

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By Abena Rockcliffe
In the past, Guyanese were denied several jobs from the government on the basis of incompetence or to put it mildly, lack of skills. When citizens reacted to the fact that no Guyanese were hired to work on the construction of the tax-funded

Marriott Hotel, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration said that Guyanese construction workers lacked capacity to carry out the job.
A Chinese company was given the contract to construct the road to Amaila Falls and the then government was in negotiation with Sithe Global—an American company—to build the 165MW Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant.
There are many other instances that can be cited when Guyanese were bypassed for lack of capacity. But there have been little moves made by the previous government to seriously address the deficit of skills needed for transformational projects.
As it seems now, the new government has stepped in to save the day in this regard, as it has high on its agenda the need to ensure that Guyanese develop the necessary skills and education needed for the development of their own country.
This became evident recently as Minister of Education Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine addressed the National Assembly making his contributions to Budget Debate.
Dr. Roopnaraine spoke about several aspects of Education in Guyana; he addressed what is lacking, pointing out measures that have been working as well as those that have not and spoke about measures needed to be taken to enhance the delivery of education in Guyana and in turn produce competent citizens.
Speaking about strategic human resource development, Dr. Roopnaraine told the House that one of the critical challenges of the education sector is laying the foundation for the development of human resources necessary to facilitate the growth of Guyana.
Addressing the Speaker, Dr. Roopnaraine said that Guyana has suffered a “double crisis over the past decade or so, an exacerbation of an existing phenomenon in which we have failed to produce a workforce capable of resilience within the existing economy, and the migration of our most qualified knowledge workers from our shores.”
The Minister said that some factors have been primarily external, from inherently competitive salaries in more economically sound countries, to direct recruitment drives from developing countries.  He added that the mass migration of qualified teachers to countries like Botswana in the late nineties is an example of the latter.  Dr. Roopnaraine informed the House that other factors have been internal, particularly a high degree of favouritism in the award of both scholarships and employment.  He emphatically stated, “The external factors we will try our best to mitigate; the internal issues we will stop completely.”
Beyond that, however, Dr. Roopnaraine said that it is imperative that the new government be innovative, coming up with a strategy for human resource development that is tailored to Guyana’s economy as it is, but also as it will be.
The Minister indicated that at the 27th Meeting of CARICOM Council on Human and Social Development held recently in Georgetown, he recommitted Guyana to being a strong partner in creating the region’s Educational and Human Resource Development Strategy 2030.
Further, he divulged that he had recently held a meeting with the Principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Dr. Clement Sankat, with the view of developing petroleum engineering education programme that would prepare Guyana for the human resource challenge of managing its potential oil industry in the near future.
Dr. Roopnaraine said that that meeting came about partially as a result of President David Granger’s visit to the St. Augustine Campus a few weeks prior.
Dr. Roopnaraine assured the National Assembly that “our (the APNU+AFC government) commitment to strategic, targeted human resource development in this country is not ad hoc, but systemic and complete.”
Petroleum engineering is primarily concerned with the economic extraction of oil, gas and other natural resources from the earth. This is accomplished through the design, drilling and operation of wells and well systems, and the integrated management of the underground reservoirs in which the resources are found.
Petroleum engineers locate, recover, and maintain the world’s oil and gas supplies. They are the innovators who use cutting-edge technology to create new methods of discovering and drilling for oil. Although there are various job descriptions, petroleum engineers all serve one function-to provide the world with energy, while safeguarding the environment for future generations.

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