GOVERNMENT will move to grant scholarships to elevate its human resource skillset as Guyana prepares for a boom in the oil and gas sector, Minister with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott said.
He was at the time speaking at the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry (CAGI) Ltd workshop hosted at the Pegasus Hotel Wednesday. The one-day seminar focused on understanding issues of productivity and exploring ways of improving.
Minister Scott encouraged stakeholders to be prepared for the oil boom.
“We are going to move towards granting of scholarships to the young people of this country so that Guyana within 4-5 years will not have to so much import skills, but we will have our skillset elevated,” the Labour Minister noted.
He underscored that Guyana is on a new cusp with the discovery of oil and new skills will be needed to develop the sector.
“Our economy is poised to take off… we don’t have intentions of pursuing an oil refinery; we have learnt from other experience and one refinery in the region can process all the oil, our wealth must be shared to all in Guyana and throughout the West Indies,” the Labour Minister said.
He explained that staff training and development interventions are essential requirements for the successful operations and maintenance of viable enterprises. Such training interventions are designed to ensure that business enterprises have competent and well-trained staff for their various operations and services; develop staff capabilities to meet current and future demands relating to their job responsibilities; and provide the opportunities for personal growth and career development in the business enterprise.
According to Minister Scott, the private and public sector enterprises, the economy, and industry require adequately trained technical, supervisory, managerial, and professional staff with the ability for independent thought and creativity, analytical and problem-solving skills and initiative.
He explained that middle and senior level managers will require broader training and knowledge to cope with new developments and the changing demands of the business environment and their impact on the enterprise. Staff development initiatives aim at improvement of supervisory and managerial skills, preparation for greater responsibility, and developing top leadership skills.
He said absenteeism in the workforce and presentism severely affects the overall output and production of the workforce as a whole, especially companies.
Senior specialist of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on employment activities, Vanessa Phala indicated that the seminar will aim to cover aspects of productivity and competitiveness, data requirements and availability.
She said discussions will surround measures to improve productivity at organisational level, while looking at productivity of small business enterprise in Guyana.
Under the theme, “Productivity Improvements – understanding issues of productivity and exploring ways to improve,” the one day seminar was conducted by local and international resource person and facilitators. The event was in collaboration with the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation (CEC) under a European Union project and in association with the ILO.
