Govt, Private Sector urged to increase collaboration to address labour gap

As Guyana continues to experience unprecedented growth and job expansion, the Government is committed to working with the private sector to resolve skills gaps within the local labour market.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh made this remark on Friday during a multi-stakeholder forum on Guyana’s labour needs.
This was hosted by the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry’s Diaspora Unit at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
“We, as a Government, are committed to working with the private sector and the labour force to resolve any mismatches that might exist in the labour market because our objectives are very simple. We want a competitive private sector, which means having people with relevant skills. And we want as many Guyanese people working in fulfilling and satisfying jobs,” Singh said. Singh noted the existing contrasting realities whereby the private sector often faces challenges in finding skilled workers while job seekers across the country struggle to secure placements.

“How do you reconcile that on the employer side of the conversation, you’re being told they can’t get people and on the supply side, or potential worker population, are saying to you, they can’t get jobs?  How do you reconcile these two realities?” Singh pondered.
Recognising the need, therefore, to ensure persons have the requisite skills needed to fulfil their job requirements, Singh stated that efforts are being made to provide training and educational opportunities.
“We’re working through innovative means including programmes such as the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme. We are ramping up technical and vocational training, including through the traditional technical institutes, through the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), and very shortly through the Guyana Technical Training College, which is going to be home to the National Oil and Gas Institute and to the National Tourism and Hospitality Institute that is currently being built,” Singh explained.
In turn, Minister Singh expressed a need for Guyanese to rethink the way they view their work by removing themselves from the notion that certain jobs hold value over others and by being willing to be occupationally mobile.
“There is this concept that you have arrived if you work in an office…[We are] more and more encouraging people to practice occupational mobility, reskilling and retraining and going to where the jobs are,” Singh said.
“Part of this is communication–explaining to people where the opportunities are, what these opportunities pay and destigmatising some types of work,” Singh added.

Job expansion
From the Ogle to Eccles four-lane highway to the construction of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital, from to the potential bridge link between Guyana and Suriname to the construction of several hotels, stadiums, municipal airports and oil and gas-related projects, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill stated that there is a growing need for workers.
“Right now, [there’s over] 60 foreign nationals that are here driving [trucks for the construction of the Ogle to Eccles road]. And I could assure you that through the Ministry of Public Works and through their own advertising, they have been hunting to get drivers locally for those trucks. So that’s just an indication of how the demand for labour is becoming,” Edghill said.
While the Government was compelled to seek foreign expertise on many of these projects, Edghill maintained a need to continue upskilling Guyanese workers so the country can become more self-reliant.
“We want to see more Guyanese being employed, partaking in economic activities and benefiting from it as well,” Edghill said.