At BIT graduation in NA… AG underscores competitive edge of education, skills –in today’s global environment
December 14, 2014, Source - Guyana Chronicle
THE Board of Industrial Training (BIT) last Friday held its graduation ceremony for its National Training Project for Youth Empowerment (NTPYE) and Single Parent Training in Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne). And the “premium value” of education and skills in a competitive global environment was underscored by the Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, during his address to over 240 graduating students, a press release stated.
“In this competitive world, education and skills are of premium value and if you do not possess an education or some technical skill then you will not be able to compete fairly and adequately in that job market place,” Nandlall said.
The ceremony which was held in the New Amsterdam Town Hall was filled to capacity with the 240 plus graduating students in attendance, as well as their respective lecturers, guardians and friends.
Nandlall, who had spoken at other BIT graduations in different regions, said he is pleased with the large number of young people who are graduating, and this augurs well for the future of Berbice and indeed the country.
BREAKING STEREOTYPE
A pertinent observation which the Attorney-General cited and commended was the large number of young women who are graduating.
“It has been historically felt that the woman’s place is at home, in the kitchen, in a domesticated environment, and women should not enter into the field of education and aspire to professional or technical pursuits. That unfortunately, has been the history bequeathed to us by those who preceded us… the stereotyping of women was particularly entrenched and pronounced in the rural communities such as Berbice,” he said.
Nandlall added that, “Over the years we have been able to free ourselves from the mentality of that time and every year we have made accomplishments in the areas of gender equality. It has been a long and hard process, but at the legislative level in our country we have passed a menu of legislations that makes discrimination unlawful in every sphere of life, in particular at the workplace on the ground of gender and sex.
“We have ensured, for example, at the level of our Parliament that there is representation by women of a particular number, so we have a numerical requirement in terms of the number of women who go on the list of a political party and the number of women who represent the people of this country in our National Assembly. We have also ensured that there are statutory, as well as constitutional bodies to ensure that there is gender equality in our country at every level.”
He made mention also of the education system, stressing that there is no discrimination against students on the grounds of gender, and that at every level and in every region, children are accorded equal treatment and equal facilities are expended on them.
Drawing parallels from the other ceremonies, he also observed that “every ethnic grouping in Guyana is adequately and fairly represented at these ceremonies. What that means, is that … I can see Guyana in front of me and that is a remarkable accomplishment of this initiative.”
EMPHASIS ON HUMAN CAPITAL
According to Nandlall, the importance of investing in human development in one that has been demonstrably acknowledged by the current administration.
“We in the government recognise that if we are to develop our country and its people to their full potential, then we need each and everyone of them to be educated either academically or technically so that they are equipped to discharge the responsibility and the duties that would devolve upon them as nation- building unfolds, because nation-building is a task from which no one is exempt and we need the contribution of all of our people,” the Attorney-General said.
He stated that the government is also concerned about human development in the factors of production.
Nandlall said, “In the developmental equation, the most fundamental factor from the perspective of the government is the human capital. The human capital is our greatest asset and therefore we see it as our primary responsibility in government to develop, to hone, to educate, to nurture the human capital among us, and that is why these programmes are being conducted right across the length and breadth of our country. Whatever project we initiate we do not discriminate in any form or fashion, either on the ground of ethnicity, race, class, colour or geographic location. That is also extant in every one of our policies at a governmental level.”
According to the AG, emphasis is placed on human capital because of how competitive and smaller the world is becoming.
“We do not want you to merely graduate today, we want you to see this graduation as a stepping stone and for you to continue to build upon what you have learnt today… you need in the technical world to continue to equip yourselves because we have a plan for this country… that is, to take this country to a different level industrially and at the level of the manufacturing sector,” he said.
The Attorney-General spoke about further developing the manufacturing and industrial potential of Guyana and said, “This is why we need you to be here because we need you to work with us – soon we will be announcing a plan for a deep water harbour at the mouth of the Berbice River and that will complement a road to Brazil. You will have hundreds of containers that will come here to be trans-shipped to Brazil, which is the fifth largest economy in the world. A bridge that will be constructed across the Corentyne River, which will connect Nickerie to Crabwood Creek, bridging Guyana to Suriname. There are investors from India who are looking at the Canje Basin to do large-scale farming, and of course we are working very hard to bring hydroelectricity to our country because we see that as extraordinarily important for the development of the manufacturing and industrial sector of country.”
HYDRO-POWER
Nandlall also addressed the commitment of government in nearly delivering hydro-power to Guyana via the Amaila Falls Hydro project which unfortunately, was halted because the combined Opposition rejected it in Parliament.
He said, “We cannot develop this country without hydro-power. We have to find a cheap source of electricity. Guyana generates electricity at a cost that is four times the cost in New York, five times the cost in Trinidad.
“There is no incentive for an investor who will come to Guyana to open a factory or build an industry when he can do so in Trinidad where the cost of electricity is five times lower than in Guyana… cost of electricity and that is what is crippling the capabilities of this country from achieving its full economic and financial potential.
“We have the natural resources, but we need the cheap energy to develop those resources, to build the factories, to process the food and meat that we are capable of producing, in the volume that we are capable of producing it, so that we can export it to the outside world.”
Speaking specifically to the graduating students, he said, “It is the factories that will give you the jobs, it is the industries that will provide you with the opportunities to achieve the financial reward that you are entitled to and that you deserve, but we cannot do that unless we get hydro-power.
“That is why I am pleased to inform you that the President and government are currently negotiating with a different set of investors under a different arrangement in order to ensure that we bring hydro- power to our country, so that we don’t have to spend the billions upon billions of dollars to purchase fuel to run a system that is inefficient and not cost effective. That is why hydro-power is so important.”
“We are living at a time where our country is about to unleash its potential and we need all of our people to put their shoulders to the wheel. As you graduate today, remember that you have a far greater role to play than what the certificates say you are graduating to be,” Nandlall concluded.
He told the graduating students that in achieving their goals and objectives, obstacles will come their way which will test them. However, “there is no problem; there is no hurdle that you will face that you do not have the ability to overcome. At the end you will triumph.”
He also congratulated the graduates and their parents, families, friends and lecturers who made the necessary sacrifices and gave the support needed for the students to be successful in their endeavours.
Meanwhile, BIT’s Chairman Clinton Williams highlighted that the board’s programmes were being conducted in all 10 regions and for this year alone 2,700 students have acquired skills in different disciplines and will be graduating in their respective fields.
He stressed that a lot more work is needed to address the increasing demand for certain types of skills and called on the private sector to contribute more in the training, financing and identification of those skills in tandem with BIT.
The BIT programme was designed by Government to specifically target persons who for whatever reason did not get the opportunity to participate in the formal educational system of Guyana and for those who may not have excelled academically through the system, the release concluded.
Source - http://guyanachronicle.com/at-...-global-environment/
