By Isanella Patoir
A 10-year policy focused on expanding Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Guyana has been developed, and the government is expected to spend billions of dollars to achieve the goals outlined in the document.
Based on the policy document, about $18.5 billion should be spent to modernise and enhance TVET in three years (from 2025 to 2027).
A single national institution that will have full oversight for the planning, coordination, and regulation of the sector will cost a total of $650 million.
Another $666 million is budgeted to develop guidelines to establish and operationalise management committees for TVET institutions over a two-year period.
To modernise TVET equipment in the training institutions, a total of $6 billion will be spent, while $4 billion is earmarked to explore and train new trades in line with emerging technologies within the technical and vocational fields.
Heavy focus on skilled labour as National TVET Policy launched
Additionally, to ensure continuous training delivery at all times and at all places in Guyana, $4.4 billion should be spent. To expand facilities of the training providers and enhance human resources, $6 billion will be spent.
So, why these ventures?
There has been much conversation on the great need for more skilled labour in Guyana to support the expansion of the local economy. Labour shortages have been a concern of many.
Guyana’s Centre for Local Business Development in 2023, conducted a Labour Assessment study that focused on five sectors critical to the country’s development.
The study found that five sectors – Agriculture, Construction, Health, Transport and Logistics, and Oil and Gas – would require some 52,396 additional workers by 2028.
The findings in the study noted that several factors exacerbate the country’s labour shortage. These include high attrition rates, inadequate skill development, and limited immigration policies.
The study further indicated that, in relative terms, the main occupational profiles in demand for the next five years in the oil and gas value chain appear to be engineering professionals. Others include physical and engineering science technicians, sheet and structural metal workers, moulders, and welders.
In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2019, stated that one of the key weaknesses that the Guyanese economy would have to overcome from the oil boom is the issue of skilled labour shortage. It also noted that although oil and gas operations employ a wide range of jobs, including unskilled ones, an important proportion of the job openings require at least a higher technical and vocational degree.
So, the government is focused on training more Guyanese to capitalise on the demand for skilled labour. It wants to substantially expand TVET ventures since current estimates show that current programmes will not meet the demand.
Can Guyana find the thousands of workers it needs?
In fact, the policy noted that it is estimated that over the first five years, the education system will generate approximately 7,550 new University Graduates and 16,375 TVET graduates in disciplines relevant to the five sectors.
These graduates will need to be shared across the five focus economic sectors, and other sectors, including manufacturing, mining, and public utilities, among others.
“This supply is insufficient for the five sectors in this study, where 47,051 workers are needed from the semi-skilled to management levels.
“The data shows that the education and training system will fall very short of what is needed; and Major investments to scale up training and education should be pursued, along with guest worker policies and mechanisation to bridge the shortfalls,” information from the National TVET policy revealed.
The government worked alongside the World Bank to develop this policy and envisions a major expansion in TVET locally.
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