Minister of Labour, Joe Hamilton announced today that the Labour Ministry in partnership with gold mining company, GMIN Ventures Guyana Inc – a subsidiary of G-Mining Ventures Corp. – is preparing to roll out a training programme that will see 1,500 persons being trained ahead of the start of operations in 2027. 

According to Mr. Hamilton the programme will be launched within a week, and will see persons receiving skills training in a number of occupational areas such as welding, mechanics, and instrumentation and pipe fitting, at the Labour Ministry’s Board of Industrial Training (BIT) Centre in Bartica.

“So, at our facility in Bartica, we will train all the staff that will work at this mining site. I think 1,500 in the first instance, that is for the preparation and development of the mine. And then after the development of the mine, I think in 2027 or 2026, we will continue to train all of the people who would work in this mine whether it is heavy duty equipment operators, welders and fabricators, electricians and so forth,” Minister Hamilton explained. 

News Source understands that GMIN Ventures intends to build a barge landing facility, a number of internal roads as well as the main access road to mine site, and an airstrip during the first half of 2025. 

Minister Hamilton said in addition to the training that would be conducted in Bartica, the Labour Ministry with funding from the World Bank, will train 20 women in Solar PV Technology. Two of the women to be trained will be drawn from each region.

The Apprenticeship Programme in Electrical Installation and Basic PV Technology will commence on January 13, 2025 under the supervision of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA). 

Another training programme being done in partnership with USAID-YRIE will see the training of 90 young people in at-risk situations under the Project IGNITE.

It targets 30 youths from Abouystown, 30 from Sophia and another 30 from New Amsterdam.

Reflecting on 2024, Minister Hamilton said the Ministry, under its Board of Industrial Training, was able to train 1,490 persons in 104 projects across 29 occupational areas of training in all of the regions with the exception of Region Eight. 

A total of 794 men were trained while 696 men received training at a cost of $169.3M. 

The Ministry of Labour has trained more than 12,700 persons over the past four years.

“Important to the stats is the fact that we have been able to get hundreds of women interested in what we call hard skills programme. We have been able across the country to have women participate in training areas that they were shut out from over decades,” Minister Hamilton said. 

He said the data suggests that 60% of the people trained over the past four years were females. 

Persons also received training in A/C and Refrigeration Servicing and Repairs, electrical installation, furniture making, general building construction, heavy duty equipment operation, motor vehicle servicing and repairs, plumbing and small engine repairs among other areas.

Sixty persons with disabilities were also trained in five occupational areas in Region 4. 

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