THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ministry of Labour have started work on the development of a framework to integrate Venezuelan migrants into the local labour force, through the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, said technical officers from the ministry and BIT have been tasked with developing a framework to create a programme which will provide much needed Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) to migrants.

“We have had the technical officers who have had conversations with UNHCR… they are to put in place a framework and they are to report to me,” Minister Hamilton said.

The minister noted that the Venezuelan ambassador to Guyana has also been engaged for a potential collaboration to offer English Language training.

“We are hoping to have the programme developed… importantly too, we are hoping to have English language training before we can move into other areas of training for the people in the technical skills,” Hamilton said.

He added: “I have had preliminary conversations with the Venezuelan ambassador to see if we could use the Venezuelan Institute for Culture and Cooperation [IVCC] to see if people could be trained there; so those are the conversations that are happening.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton related that the ministry has made provisions for its technical staff to be trained in several languages. This, he noted, is an ongoing training exercise within the ministry, involving staff who are taught Spanish and Portuguese to cater for the influx of both Venezuelan and Brazilian migrants.

“I had recommended that officers do foreign languages and I know they have started some interventions and I know they have started both Spanish and Portuguese.

Those are labour officers, OHS [Occupational Health and Safety] officers and BIT officers,” the minister said.

Additionally, he related that some preliminary discussions have been held with China’s Ambassador to Guyana to facilitate a mandarin programme for technical officers at the ministry.

“I had some preliminary conversations with the Chinese Ambassador; perhaps we can facilitate mandarin programme, because we have a lot of Chinese. All and all, I’m saying that officers should know one or two foreign languages so they can properly supervise people who are involved in work here, both employer and employees,” Hamilton said.