THE Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI), one the country’s premier onshore support facilities servicing the oil-and-gas industry, has announced the launch of its technical scholarship, which will be aimed at supporting educational opportunities for persons between the ages of 16 and 25 years old at the various technical institutes across the country.

According to a press release, those scholarships will be available at the Essequibo Technical Institute, Government Technical Institute, Linden Technical Institute, Mahaicony Technical Institute, New Amsterdam Technical Institute, and the Upper Corentyne Technical Institute for the 2023/2024 Academic year.

The initiative will cover expenses such as travel, uniforms, study materials, registration, and examination fees, among others.
The programme is designed to offer internships to successful applicants during their semester breaks so that they can gain valuable hands-on training and knowledge transfer. At the end of their studies, they will also be afforded the opportunity to be fully employed within the company.

Robert Albiez, General Manager of GYSBI, in an invited comment said that the company wanted to create a programme which will benefit young Guyanese and ensure that they are equipped with valuable lifeskills and are positively engaged.
“This initiative is simply our investment in the young people of Guyana so that they can benefit from the bountiful opportunities existing in this country. It is our intention to offer approximately 10 scholarships per year in any area of study selected by the successful applicants at the identified technical institutes and we are looking forward to having our first cohort come September 2023,” he said.

Albiez related that the initiative was birthed after realising that while many possess the experience and technical skills needed to fill the positions on the operations side of the oil-and- gas sector, they lacked the proper academic certificates. It, therefore, aims to build a cadre of qualified workers, supervisors, and managers not only for the oil-and-gas industry, but the other sectors of the economy as well.

“What we have found is that a lot of persons who are working in operations have 10 or 20 years of experience because they were informally trained, or because they worked in the mining industry, etc., but they do not have formal education certificates.
“So we want to be able to create and develop a workforce which will be both experienced and certified three or five years from now. GYSBI, as a Guyanese company, has always focused on creating tangible opportunities for Guyanese and this is just another one of our initiatives geared at doing that,” he said.

As it relates to eligibility, anyone who is between the ages of 16 and 25 years, has been accepted for a programme at any of the institutes (new and current students), and is willing to serve an internship at GYSBI during semester breaks, can apply.
Each beneficiary of this initiative will have their yearly academic expenses up to the sum of G$500,000 fully paid.
To access the application form and list of documents required, please visit Gysbi.gy/scholarship-form/. The deadline for submission of applications is August 18, 2023.