Guyana Labour Ministry builds partnership to strengthen Labour Force

Guyana: The Labour Ministry, on December 7, 2022, updated that it has been creating partnerships to build Guyana’s Labour Force. It stated that a team from the Centre for Local Business Development on Tuesday, met with representatives of the Ministry of Labour to discuss Guyana’s labour force concerns and the way forward to address them through much-needed cooperation.

Joseph Hamilton, Minister of Labour, Bishram Kuppen, Permanent Secretary, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), Richard Maughn, Chief Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), Yolanda Grant, Occupational Safety and Health Consultant, Gwyneth King, and Chief Labour Officer (CLO) Dhaneshwar Deonarine attended the meeting, which focused on the findings of the centre’s market analysis survey aimed to measure the competitiveness of businesses across the country and identify skills gaps in industries such as construction and oil and gas.

Minister Hamilton spoke briefly about the ministry’s significant steps through BIT to equip citizens with technical and vocational skills and pressed that the agency trained 7,500 citizens since taking office in August 2020 and that more emphasis will be placed in 2023 to empower more females, retirees, and disabled people.

Further, the minister highlighted numerous memorandums of understanding that were signed with government agencies and ministries to help accelerate the approach to bettering the lives of all Guyanese.

Other accomplishments included the launch of the National Job Bank website, which in such a short time has attracted 3230 job seekers, 234 employers, and 505 job vacancies.

Future discussions will be held between the Centre for Local Business, CRMA, and BIT to increase job bank website traffic and BIT’s training opportunities, with a prospective signed memorandum on the horizon.

The visiting team included Director Natasha Gaskin-Peters, PhD, and Senior Associate Ron Glasgow.