Over time the private sector has invested heavily in programmes designed to equip its workforce with the required skills to enable them to function effectively. The state pursues its own regimen of training. Many, perhaps the vast majority of those skilled and semi-skilled workers in both sectors who have benefitted from such training over the years have departed Guyana for greener pastures, mostly in the Caribbean and North America.
Outward migration has not only resulted in the persistence of scarce skills but has also placed an additional burden on those trained workers who have either chosen to remain at home or have not been afforded the opportunity to migrate.
Scarce skills may result in higher salaries and other incentives for the few workers who are left behind but even