The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Apprentice Training Centre at Port Mourant will re-commence its training programme next month, according to its Corporate Communications Manager Audreyanna Thomas.
Speaking to the Sunday Stabroek on Monday, Thomas explained GuySuCo will be re-starting the training from next month with a batch of 30 students coming from the three estates, Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt.
Thomas related that because of the restructuring of GuySuCo, the company was forced to suspend their usual training programme. However, during the suspension, the facility was still being used.
“We were going through the transition and usually the apprentices would come from the severed estates and they would go back. After we were reorganising, we had to make some adjustments and it was all part of the transitioning. However, we were also doing a lot of external training at the facility. There was the training for the Ministry of Natural Resources, we did training for residents from the community in skills development with the Board of Industrial Training and we have also had apprentices,” Thomas explained.
However, she noted that the apprenticeship programme will recommence with personnel from the three estates in February.
In February last year, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman had said, “Essentially, I would like to see how government can support this important institution so it can remain relevant in the changing times… and not become obsolete.”
He added, “There is much offshore activity in the waters near the Guyana/Suriname border and in Suriname itself, so the belief is that Berbice can be a critical region for the provision of goods and services. We remain hopeful that the Centre will remain open. I should add that the staff were happy that a Minister visited and say they felt enthused that there was going to be a positive outcome.”
Trotman said that he felt a personal sense of obligation to the Berbice community, given that he himself hails from that county.
Expressing concern about the fate of the sugar industry here, Sunday Stabroek columnist Ian McDonald, in a recent letter, said he expected that the “regionally acclaimed, world-class” centre would continue “to be well-staffed and fully operational and even expanded to meet retraining needs and the national hunger for more and more technical skills.”
“It is essential that this part of the industry is strengthened, not diluted or diminished,” he added.
