Thirty-eight graduates were celebrated yesterday after completing four months of training at the Buxton Practical Institution Centre (PIC) facilitated by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT). The ceremony was held at Tipperary Hall.
Twenty-five females and thirteen males were trained at the facility, which attracted persons from Victoria, Belle Vue and Beterverwagting, according to a release from the Ministry of Labour.
Attending the ceremony were Joseph Hamilton, Minister of Labour; Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Richard Maughn; Technical Officer with responsibilities for the East Coast, Quinola Legall; Monitoring and Evaluation Officers, Nateica Garraway and Marcel David-Watson, trainers and other officials of BIT.
Hamilton implored the graduates to properly utilize the training funded by the Government of Guyana and BIT.
“We have trained you, now it’s time to promote yourselves, it is your duty and responsibility for people to know you exist and possess the skill. Do not sell yourselves short and more importantly, we have trained in region four, 3561 persons, representing 42% of the total training from 2015-2019”, he stated.
It was further noted by the minister that women are entering fields that they were excluded from years ago.
“The Board of Industrial Training do not train by gender, we train people, so any programme, any gender can participate, and we are proud women are thinking out of the box as welders, heavy-duty operators, and so on. Women are doing better for themselves,” the minister highlighted.
With the recent graduation, a total of 12,472 individuals participated in various TVET programmes, with 7,582 females and 4,890 males, the release said.
