Forty-one youths of Linden are now equipped with the knowledge needed to tap into Guyana’s frontier industries, now that they have completed the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Training programme, says Marlon Pearson, Senior Administrator of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA).

“There are lots of new frontiers that are opening in Guyana and what you have learnt today will help you to get into those places,” Pearson told the youths on Friday (February 22, 2019) at the graduation ceremony for the ICT Training programme in Linden, Upper Demerara – Upper Berbice (Region 10), which saw the youths receiving certificates accredited by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

Present at the event was First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, who highlighted the importance of soft skills as well as the lack of Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) within schools and society as a whole.

“Why do people still feel that HFLE should not be taught in school? HFLE helps our young people to understand who they are and how they can protect themselves,” she noted.
The programme, which is spearheaded by the Office of the First Lady, provides young adults with training in the areas of Information Communication Technology (ICT), literacy and numeracy, entrepreneurship, sexual reproductive health, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, micromanagement development and soft skills; including ethics and time management. The programme targets adolescents and out-of-school youths.

Pearson, who was the guest speaker of the event, noted that the government realises that new issues will come along with the new frontier oil and gas industry, which is why it is investing in the youths who they believe will be the ones to solve these foreseen issues.
“We recognise that on the new frontier of extractive industries like oil and gas, petroleum; we would have new problems, new issues, that we as senior members of government have never met before, that is why we are investing in you because you are the ones to find the solutions to these new problems,” he noted.

Pearson charged the youths to make information and communication technology a major part of their lives.

“Re-learn, re-tool, re-evaluate your lives, place ICT in your life, make it apart of your life. These are exciting times, we would like you to be a part of these exciting times,” he posited

Pearson also applauded the first lady and the organisers of the Board of Industrial Training for the “STEM education evolution.”

Mr. Edson Emmanuel was named the most improved student; Ms. Dacia Caesar graduated as the valedictorian and Ms. Odeli Paul as salutatorian of the ICT programme.
Valedictorian of the ICT programme, Dacia Caesar, in her speech, noted that the youths were the generation which must take technology to new far-reaching dimensions.
“We are the ones who will bring solutions to environmental concerns. We are poised to start a new chapter our lives,” she added.