At the conclusion of last weekend’s Government Technical Institute (GTI) graduation exercise the institution’s Principal Carl Benn struck an optimistic and upbeat note about its future.
This year, 483 students graduated from GTI, topping last year’s number of 394. Benn believes that the increase in the number of graduates is the direct result of a critical strategic shift in the shape of the curriculum to place enhanced emphasis on what he describes as “competency-based tuition.”
Simply put, it is a shift from the predominantly classroom-oriented course of studies to what might be described as a greater level of “practical intimacy” with the various disciplines. Benn says that one of the key accomplishments of the GTI, since 2012 has been to kick start the competency-based programmes with the direct support on institutions like the Brass Aluminium and Cast Iron Foundry (BACIF), Associated Industries Ltd (Ainlim), Mings Products and Services (MPS), the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and the Ministry of Public Works, among others.
Benn believes that the new competency-based programme has paid dividends for both the public and private sectors and for the image of the GTI. He says that in the past employers were known to have “issues” with some of the institute’s graduates. He suggested that at the workplace, some of the graduates might have demonstrated a less than adequate knowledge of the areas of work in which their credentials said they were qualified.
What this meant, Benn explains, was that the demands of public and private sector workplaces began to play a more central role in shaping the strategic thinking of the GTI. The response of the public and private sectors was to seek to forge stronger links with the GTI at two levels, first, by utilizing the institution as a training ground for their own employees and, secondly, by offering work experience-related attachments to students of the institution inside their own entities.
The first batch of graduates of the institute’s competency-based programme underwent a two-year programme that commenced in 2012. To Benn’s particular satisfaction the graduates included students sent to the institution by the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force, the Department of Lands and Surveys, the Forestry Commission and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commis-sion. Mark Gomes, this year’s Best Graduating Student, who secured a Certificate in Electrical Engineering is an employee of the prestigious Beharry Group of Companies, one of the best-known private sector institutions in Guyana.
Benn says too, that CXC graduates seeking entry into the University of Guyana to pursue engineering-related courses, use the institute’s competency-based programme as a “beginner” prior to entering the more demanding university environment.
The competency-based programme covers nine disciplines: plumbing, furniture-making, data operations, electrical installation, welding, motor vehicle repairs, metalwork engineering, masonry and office administration. A total of 153 students graduated from the institute’s competency-based programmes this year.
Benn understands that if the GTI is to continue to make a case for providing practical skills for development it must seek to minimize a system of knowledge-sharing which has traditionally been based on time spent in classroom and subsequent examinations. “To be relevant at the workplace students must demonstrate practical knowledge. Employees are clearly more satisfied when our students come to them with a high level of practical skills,” Benn says.
This year, several state and private sector entities including Genequip and Farm Supplies, the Marriott Hotel, the Guyana Water Authority, the Guyana Sugar Corporation, the Guyana Revenue Authority, and various furniture-manufacturing entities have been ‘head-hunting’ GTI graduates, Benn says. He is upbeat about the job prospects for his students this year. Demerara Distillers Ltd has expressed an interest in graduates from the institute’s Science programme, while Farfan and Mendes may well be interested in recruiting graduates from both the Science and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering programmes.
Among the trades, Benn says, human resource demands are usually highest in the disciplines of plumbing and furniture-making while in the professional disciplines students with qualifications in mechanical engineering are much sought-after. Two GTI graduates in the discipline of Agricultural Mechanics are guaranteed employment every year.
As part of the ‘culture’ of public/private sector collaboration, GTI students, this year, benefited from work attachments with several entities including the GRA, the Bank of Guyana, Massy, Artic Maintenance and Repairs, Farfan and Mendes, the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd, Digicel, Sterling Products, Guyana National Shipping Corporation, the Caricom Secretariat and GuySuCo. Benn believes that some of these are among the best training grounds in Guyana. He also singles out the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) as a “major contributor” to the work of the GTI through its provision to the institution of free internet service over the past seven years.
As part of its programme to broaden its curriculum base the GTI has established partnerships with Durham College, the College of the North Atlantic and Marine Institute of Canada, which institutions are supporting the institute in its efforts to develop capacity to offer Automotive Electronics as part of its curriculum. Earlier this year, four representatives of the institute travelled to Canada to hold discussions with these institutions and to receive training in various disciplines including leadership management, curriculum development and student welfare services.
Earlier this year, the institute also signed an agreement with Sweden’s Nykopings Gymnasium College that facilitates a five-year exchange programme in building construction practices. The programme will facilitate annual exchange visits from students from the two countries to work and study in disciplines that include carpentry, painting, bricklaying and sheet metal work. This too, Benn believes, is an opportunity for the GTI to broaden its skills base by sharing and exchanging knowledge with another country, albeit a developed one.
