MINISTER of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation, Zulfikar Ally, held a series of outreaches in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Saturday to raise awareness about the government’s recently launched Public Service Upskilling Platform.
Last week, President Dr Irfaan Ali launched the online platform, where he noted that it was built in collaboration with Coursera and represents a decisive shift away from outdated systems and towards digital adaptability and human capital development.
“We are not just launching a programme; we are building the revolution of the future in our Public Service,” the head of state said, highlighting the integration of cutting-edge technology, results-driven accountability, and skilled personnel as the foundation for this new era.
On Saturday, Minister Ally told the Sunday Chronicle that, “We want skilled and semi-skilled persons to sign up on it to share the services that they have and for citizens to sign up to see the services that are online and request services that they need, so we’re putting both parties together, those who are services and those who need services.”
He continued, “It is free, it is online, and we want to build on this throughout the country, people have been signing up, so we are excited by the amount of people that have been signing up, we had no complaints so far, so that’s a good thing. We will continue to improve it, we are hoping to get to a point now where we will be going out to find out from persons themselves, how they are benefiting from it.”
The programme will provide free and continuous learning opportunities to public servants across all regions and support efforts to modernise operations and improve efficiency.
Through the Coursera platform, public servants will have access to a wide range of courses, including foreign languages, beginner-to-advanced Microsoft Excel, project management, and website development. These courses are designed to strengthen job performance.
Meanwhile, during his outreaches, Ally also took the opportunity to educate those gathered about the roles and responsibilities of his ministry, which is a new one.
“On the government efficiency side, we are tasked with moving along the digitisation of government and the digitisation of services to the people of Guyana, especially to the people of Region Six, as well, to ensure that they don’t have to travel to Georgetown to get basic services.
“On the implementation side, we are looking to ensure that, especially for large projects and projects that they are finished on time and after they are finished, the services that are expected to come from those projects are delivered to the people.”
Additionally, Ally relayed that the digitisation process is being done throughout all government agencies.
“Every aspect of government, especially those that interface with the people of Guyana, we want to make sure that it is very smooth, very seamless, customer-friendly approach, so it’s every agency.”