By Bebi Shafeah Oosman
GUYANA is taking another major step towards building a safer and more skilled workforce with the commissioning of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Centre of Excellence at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute in Region Six.
The centre is designed to strengthen occupational safety and health training by providing workers, instructors and institutions with the knowledge and practical skills needed to identify workplace hazards, prevent accidents and foster stronger safety practices across industries.
“Today’s commissioning of the Occupational Safety and Health Centre of Excellence at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute is a significant investment in the people who will help us build safer workplaces across Guyana,” Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning, Keoma Griffith, said.
He added: “As Guyana continues to grow and new industries, technologies and workplaces emerge, our capacity to protect our workers must grow with them. This Centre will help develop highly trained Occupational Safety and Health professionals and strengthen our national capacity to build safer workplaces.
“This is the kind of partnership that supports our government’s wider vision for development: investing in our people while ensuring that progress and the protection of our workers move forward hand in hand.”
The initiative is supported by the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI), in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), and LearnCorp International.
Minister of Education, Sonia Parag, delivered featured remarks highlighting the importance of developing a highly trained workforce while ensuring safer working environments as Guyana continues its rapid development.
The Greater Guyana Initiative is a G$20 billion (US$100 million) investment by the Stabroek Block co-venturers, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited to support sustainable development through investments in education and training, economic development and health.
Parag told those gathered that the initiative is an important one, noting: “I hope you understand how this fits into the broader economic vision that the President has for this country, I hope you understand that this also contributes to the broader vision of our social circumstances…”
She stressed that safety and health is “equally important as the physical facility”, and with that she touched on the centre for excellence, means the government is not looking through a narrow tunnel, “we are having a broader vision for the entire Caribbean region, when we say centre of excellence.”
President of ExxonMobil, Guyana, Alistair Routledge stressed the importance of safety “what a centre like this is about is bringing those years of experiment of people who have worked in the industry, who have worked in keeping people safe, the technologies available and bringing it together in a way where we can train people.”
This he said, “is about collecting all the knowledge” into a programme to teach young people with the tools as well as help them to stay “safe and stay healthy.”
He stressed that the programme is the first in Guyana and the region and is “hugely important.”
