Budget 2022 – Technical and Vocational Training

Feb 02, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,
With great respect, whoever wrote the script on the proposed Technical and Vocational Training project, did an injustice to the very busy Minister of Finance.
While one applauds the recognition of the critical need for development of ‘human capital’, albeit via the aforementioned training, it is important that those who may be affected, like prospective trainers/trainees, be alerted by appropriately accurate information.According to the Guyana Chronicle of January 28, the developmental process will involve:
– Analysis of institutions offering skills training
– Collaboration with the private sector to supplement its ongoing plans to streamline the national skills training programmes – to be tailored to accommodate the needs of the labour market in every sector.
One pauses to reflect on the considerable breath and length of a survey of the needs of every sector (to be identified) – which must obviously reflect the construction of more than one ‘curriculum’. One suspects, however, that there are already groups capable of devising programmes relating to:
– Oil and Gas
– Tourism and Hospitality
Meanwhile it would be optimistic to expect that within 2022 the GuySuCo Apprentice Training Centre (not School) can be upgraded, if only in terms of physical accommodation, to host students and lecturers likely to congregate from different parts of the country. But more critical is the issue of designing and constructing appropriate classrooms, laboratories, installation of the appropriate equipment, in addition to safety gear to protect all in this pandemic environment.
But in the milieu the script writer simplistically refers to training as the following:
a) Welders
b) Stevedores
c) Heavy Vehicle Operators
Apart from the above, there is just that inkling suspicion that the Board of GuySuCo may not yet have been consulted on the conceptualisation of this joint venture.
With the greatest respect however, this proposed project is too critical a human resources development venture for it to be rushed. It needs to be addressed by a range of actions, including the following:
– Coordination of a Management Committee that would include representatives of the following:
o Oil and Gas Industry
o Hospitality and Tourism Industry
o Guyana Sugar Corporation
o Board of Industrial Training
o Private Sector Commission
– Allow access by other indicated interested parties
– Formulate a comprehensive development plan to cover at least the first 10 years
– Assign appropriate groupings to develop respective curricula and identify the specific lecture capabilities that would be applicable
– Agree on the equipment (including IT) and related services that would be necessary for the identified number of students that can be trained over different periodicities of related programmes
– The above may likely inform the design of teaching and residential accommodation; as at the same time agreement on varying entry levels for different skills
– The related qualifications of lecturers have to be agreed – a process involving the design of job descriptions that will inform the selection and recruitment process, compensation and benefits structure
– The foregoing must fall within a predetermined organisation structure, headed by a Principal and identifiable managerial personnel.
– Time will be needed for:
o Articulation of a Vision
o Portrayal of a specific Mission Statement
o Publication of recruitment procedure, including necessary job descriptions
o Formulation of other human resources management inputs, uniforms etc.; welfare supervision
o Providing for other unpredictables
o Contemplating and agreeing a more identifiable name for the institution
It is to be noted that the Port Mourant Apprentice Training Centre is a Section of GuySuCo’s Human Resources Division. Given the new dispensation, it will be necessary to decide where and how the critical human resources advisory would be centred. The organisational implications should not be underestimated.
Indeed, the question must be addressed as to how would GuySuCo’s range of internal programmes fit into the proposed new construct.
E.B. John
Organisational Development and
Human Resources Management Advisor

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