The advent of Guyana’s oil and gas era already having triggered an expansive state-led exercise designed to elicit global attention into the prospects that inhere in the promise of an emerging petro state, the Government of Guyana has also been targeting Guyanese abroad through a continually unfolding PR effort to entice them to return home to take up new job opportunities that are likely to emerge in a transforming society. Unsurprisingly, the United States, where several thousands of Guyanese have made their homes over the years, is the country that is being most targeted as the likely locale where the prospects of recruiting Guyanese to take up jobs that are expected to be created in Guyana in the period ahead in both the public and private sectors as the country’s economy expands against the backdrop of an unfolding oil economy.
The collaborative state/private sector undertaking reflects a simultaneous expansion in the growth ambitions of the two sectors and a mutual recognition of the likely benefits to be derived from targeting the United States job market. A release on the event states that it “presents a unique opportunity for skilled Guyanese abroad to explore career prospects in Guyana and actively contribute to the nation’s ongoing development initiatives,” though it provided no information on the actual job opportunities that may be available in either the state or the private sector. The advent of the oil and gas industry, and more particularly, the attraction that inheres evidence that the oil and gas sector is prepared to offer ‘through-the-roof’ salary levels to anyone possessing specialist skills has given rise to transformations in training choices that takes advantage of disciplines where likely skills acquisition better positions persons to access jobs that offers exalted salary levels.
In the private sector, local as well as overseas investment in Guyana has created its own clutch of jobs on specific disciplines associated with management and technical positions in new business sector areas. Skills in the construction, engineering and other disciplines continue to be in high demand as the buildout associated with the country’s envisaged growth continues. The July 27 New York Job Fair event is expected to be repeated at other locations in North America as the accelerated growth of both the private and public sectors continues.
