This year, the Ministry of Labour is hoping to train 20,400 persons, 2000 of whom will be youths who will fall under the National Training Project for Youth Empowerment, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir has said.
He disclosed that a larger target was not set because the ministry wanted to ensure that the trainees receive quality training, which will enable them to become eligible for employment.
Nadir said that special emphasis will also be placed on the services provided by the ministry’s various agencies, including the Board of Industrial Training and the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency.
The ministry’s job placement rate is about 65 per cent, and it is working to increase that to 75 per cent.
Minister Nadir said the ministry will also be placing focus on self- employment by transforming the trainees into young entrepreneurs.
“That is going to be another focus of our training in 2011, and we are going to expand the single-parent training program to include more classes in micro-enterprise management and information and communication technology. We will also add another month to our training programme for them,” he said. In the past, the single-parent training programme was held for three to four months and focused on remedial skills in reading, reasoning and arithmetic.
” We are moving to ensure that several of our young people, especially in the engineering and craft skills, can have the ability to start their own little business from the comfort, perhaps, of their own residence… We don’t want them to disturb their neighbourhood, but at the same time, with the skills they are acquiring, those who can do automotive, electrical, refrigeration, mechanical trade and the heavy duty operators, don’t necessarily have to work for people. They can set up their own private enterprises,” Nadir said.
The ministry is also working to improve on the services of the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency, and is designing a massive public relations program to advance the services of the agency to more people throughout the country.
“Before the end of May, we are going to embark on four major job fairs in the country. We’re going to take the services of the Labour Department and the new services of the CRMA directly to the people. This starts at the end of February with an outreach to Region Two, and that will be done at Charity.
After Charity, we are going to Bartica in March for another job fair, then we are moving to Linden the following month with the job fair, and then Region Six, New Amsterdam, in May.
