With considerations of occupational health and safety becoming increasingly critical across the sectors in a transforming Guyana socio-economic environment, Global People’s Services & Management Consultants Inc (GPSM) will be delivering an eight-day Emergency Response Training Programme for employees of Aurora Gold Mines Ltd. from March 23-31, 2022.
Managing Director of GPSM Peter Benny told the Stabroek Business earlier this week that the training exercise, which will involve forty Aurora Gold Mines employees will focus on underground and open pit mining activities and that the training will focus on the creation of “highly specialised emergency response teams” that can deliver a high level of “first response capability” at mine sites, when the need arises. “We are responding to what we perceive to be a critical need in an environment where the operations of some of the more important economic sectors in the country are underpinned by risk-related considerations that speak to the importance of workers being able not just to respond to safety and health considerations, but also to recognise safety-related anomalies in the workplace environment and to vigorously advocate for corrective measures. In an environment such as ours it is also important that we pay particular attention to ensuring that vital workplace safety infrastructure are functioning effectively and that they are in a position to provide optimum responses in circumstances where that need arises,” Benny said.
Benny explained that the training programme, which will be directed by Emergency Response Training (ERT) expert Johnny Pennington, will expose the trainees to rigorous specialised training in various safety-related and emergency response areas including Site Safety, Fire Team Training, Breathing Apparatus, Hazardous Materials Management, Vertical Rescue, Surface Mine Rescue, Underground Rescue, Confined Space Entry and Road Crash Response Rescue.
The Managing Director told Stabroek Business that Pennington will be supported in the delivery of the training programme by Randy Balram, a qualified technical mining functionary who is experienced in emergency situations which provide real-life learning experiences that can be applied in a training environment.
Benny, a former senior manager with the Canadian gold-mining operation, Omai Gold Mines Ltd and the Aurora Mines said that GPSM had been established as a direct response to the developmental direction in which Guyana was going and that the company’s particular interests included seeking to ensure that the Guyana work force is suitably equipped to function in positions that required high skills levels as well as “an ability to respond to such emergency and safety-related situations as might arise. It is not just a question of our Guyanese employees being able to respond to such emergency situations as might arise on the work site but also a matter of prospective employees enhancing their chances of competing effectively for some types of jobs because of their prior training in areas that have to do with health and safety,” Benny told Stabroek Business.
