Guyana is positioning itself to become a regional training hub for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) with the commissioning of a new state-of-the-art centre of excellence in Region Six funded by ExxonMobil and its partners here.
The facility, located on the compound of the New Amsterdam Technical Institute, was commissioned on Friday as part of a partnership between the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI), the Ministry of Education, the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and LearnCorp International.
The 2,592-square-foot facility centre will host the Level Three Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) in Occupational Safety and Health Programme and will serve as both a national and regional training hub for advancing occupational safety and health standards.
Education Minister Sonia Parag said the facility forms part of Government’s commitment to expanding technical and vocational education and training while building a more skilled workforce.
“This is an entire facility that is going to serve not only our core ambition for expanded technical skills nationally, but it’s also going to become a regional hub, and that’s where we want to take it,” Parag said.
She said the development aligns with the Government’s 2025 manifesto commitment to build national capacity through the expansion of technical and vocational education and training.
However, Parag stressed that the expansion of technical skills must be accompanied by stronger occupational safety standards, particularly as Guyana continues to experience rapid economic growth.
“We cannot say that we’re an oil-producing nation and we are developing at a pace that is now called the fastest-growing economy…and then we do not take care of our most valuable asset, which is our people,” she said.
The Minister said the centre’s importance extends beyond the number of students it trains, arguing that its ultimate success should be measured by the calibre of professionals it produces.
She said she wants graduates of the programme to go on to become leaders in occupational safety and health, both in Guyana and across the region.
A release from GGI said that the centre will combine classroom instruction with practical familiarisation in areas including personal protective equipment, gas detection, industrial hygiene, first aid, chemical safety, fall protection, lifting and rigging, confined-space procedures and emergency response.
It added that the practical sessions are designed to complement the certificate-level training by providing students with hands-on exposure to equipment, procedures and workplace practices as part of their learning.
“Students will gain exposure to equipment and procedures across personal protective equipment (PPE); atmospheric monitoring and gas detection; industrial hygiene; first aid, CPR and AEDs (automated external defibrillators); chemical safety, including Globally Harmonized System and Transportation of Dangerous Goods; power-tool use and guards; safety barricades and barriers; fall protection and rescue; scaffold use and safety awareness; lifting and rigging; confined-space entry, monitoring and rescue; and basic firefighting and emergency response”, GGI stated.
Wamanda McKenzie-Joseph, one of the 32 inaugural student reflected on the opportunity the Centre presents for young Guyanese, according to GGI.
“I feel very privileged to be a part of this first batch. I feel this program will provide me with further knowledge on health and safety practices, and I look forward to all of the programs that are a part of the Centre of Excellence.”
Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, on behalf of the Stabroek Block co-venturers, said “At its core, occupational safety and health is about protecting lives. It is about ensuring that every worker, whether on a construction site, in an office, at a manufacturing facility, within the transportation sector, or offshore, has the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to perform their duties safely and return home to their families each day.”
GGI quoted Keoma Griffith Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning as saying, “This facility will complement the work of the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning. We have launched a campaign which we have titled ‘Putting Safety First’ and so far, we have gone into every region. We have brought educational awareness symposiums and talk to every region in construction and this program we intend to run in every single high-risk sector in this country until everybody approaches safety as a priority. Critically we must train more people and train them better, this is why today’s commissioning is so important.”
Phil Doody, President and CEO of LearnCorp International, stated “We are not simply opening a world class safety and health training facility, we are pairing it with a CVQ OSH Level 3 Diploma Program creating an environment for occupational safety and health beyond theory. People can learn, they can practice, they can demonstrate competency, they can make mistakes in controlled learning environments, and they can leave here better prepared to protect themselves and the people working alongside them.”
GGI s a US$100 million ($20 billion), 10-year investment funded by the Stabroek Block co-venturers – ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited.
The initiative supports capacity-building programmes across education, health and economic development.
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