UG’s open day and job fair 2025 opens with expansive career opportunities

Mar 08, 2025 News

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Kaieteur news- The University of Guyana’s (UG) 2025 Open Day and Job Fair opened on Friday with expansive career and networking opportunities for students and alumni.

Themed, “Explore, Connect, Evolve”, this year’s open day and job fair aims at helping students discover career paths, engage with industries, and foster personal and professional growth.

The event which concludes today attracted employers from diverse sectors, all eager to meet potential employees. It provides a platform for local companies to meet and interview job-seekers, while also fostering relationships with UG students, alumni and secondary school students.

In addition to career opportunities, attendees were invited to participate in exciting competitions and utilize a specially designed app that help job-seekers navigate available job listings both at the event and online.

Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin spoke of the rapid growth of Guyana’s economy and the need to equip the country’s workforce with the skills to meet its growing demand.

She said, “Guyana is really one of the fastest growing economies in the world and really we (University) cannot keep enough people, we cannot produce enough people in the University to fill the needs of local companies, in certain disciplines.”

The Vice Chancellor said, “The theme this year as you can see, explore, so we invited everybody to explore, connect we invite you to connect, not only with each other, not only to the teams on the grounds and on the booths but also we do have some exciting other items, we have competitions, you can win prizes, we have an app that you can log unto if you are looking for jobs elsewhere.”

Professor Mohamed said it is important that persons take full advantage of the existing opportunities.

Registrar of the University of Guyana Dr. Nigel Gravesande reflected on the growth of the job fair initiative and its positive impact on student development.

He said, “Starting from three years ago with a job fair, the intention is to bring employers into direct contact with our students but that has gone even further as we have seen expediential growth of collaboration with corporate Guyana and the University’s academic units.”

Dr. Gravesande said that the University’s students are benefitting significantly from the opportunities for “internment in which the relevance of what industries are doing is complemented by the academic deliverables.”

He also spoke of the geographic expansion of the University’s impact, citing increased enrollment in various regions of Guyana. He explained that in Region One (Barima-Waini), there has been a notable 35.8 percent increase in the number of students pursuing higher education.

In Region Two (Pomeroon – Supernaam), student enrollment has surged by 25.9 percent, indicating a growing demand for tertiary education. Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) saw a more modest increase of 5.8 percent, while Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) experienced a 17.7 percent rise.

Additionally, Dr. Gravesande said that Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) saw a 5.4 percent increase, and Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) recorded a 10.9 percent growth in the number of students seeking tertiary education. This upward trend is also evident in Regions Eight, Nine, and Ten, where similar increases have been observed.

“The net effect of this all is that the University of Guyana is reaching every corner of our 83,000 square miles and the administration should be commended for this vision, supported by the private sector in access,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ritesh Tularam, Deputy Chief Education Officer for the Ministry of Education, offered valuable insights into the broader educational landscape, emphasizing the importance of networking and understanding the job market.

He said, “As I mentioned, a well conceptualized, well strategic thought out job fair that is positioned not for us to come here and walk around and to have a conversation but it’s bigger than that, it’s much more important than that.”

Tularam emphasized the importance of utilizing the opportunities available at the moment and maximizing their potential. He highlighted the need for forming networks, which refers to connecting with others to learn about the various services and products available.

He encouraged the students to grab all opportunities offered to support their educational growth and success.

To this end, the Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton urged persons to pay attention to the ever-changing labor landscape.

“Don’t want to do something that is out of style, many professions are already out of style and more will go out of style, pay attention for the needs of the labour landscape and I would say to you that will save you the heartache of being on social media informing us (Labour Ministry) how long you have graduated and you can’t get a work yet,” he said.

The Minister raised concerns about regional imbalances in the country’s labor market. “For the private sector there’re a couple things they have to do. How do you move your industries into other regions, we cannot talk about national development and we only focused on Region Two, Three, Five, Six and maybe 10, we have 10 regions,” Hamilton stated.

He continued, “So as the University, as the Ministry of Education and as the Board of Industrial Training and all the training arms we have in Government, as we do that, up skilling people, the private sector must also recognize that most people want to work where they live and most people want to live where they work.”

(UG’s open day and job fair 2025 opens with expansive career opportunities)

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• Booths, job fair, Open day, opportunity, University of Guyana

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