The Kuru Kuru Training Centre on Friday concluded its Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training 2008-2009 class with a graduation ceremony. The 10-month programme is the ninth course at the Centre which is conducted under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS).
The skills training programme which started back in September with 178 students saw 169, of which 46 were females, graduating. This year’s batch of students was the largest, according to Dennis Gillis, the Senior Training Officer of the centre.
The Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training programme provides skills training in the areas of business studies, carpentry, masonry, electrical installation, joinery, motor mechanics, welding and fabrication, plumbing and sheet metal and garment construction to persons between the ages of 16-25.
Youth Minister Frank Anthony (sitting at centre) with the graduates and officials
Addressing the graduates, Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport said, “This is a milestone in your life and all of you have done us proud.” He went on to mention the improvement of the quality of the work that the centre has offered and congratulated the teachers for having “done an excellent job”.
Anthony highlighted some of the plans that are in store for the development of the Kuru Kuru Training Centre. These include improving the curriculum and adding new skills; there are also plans for the improvement of staff training, infrastructure and the provision of electricity to the centre from the road. Development is said to be underway for a resource centre with a computer laboratory and a library.
Some of the projects, the minister pointed out, will be funded through a partnership with the UNDP. He pointed to the importance of partnerships with organisations to raise the standard of the centre so it could be equivalent to that of other Caribbean vocational centres.
While the minister advised the graduates to utilise their skills he challenged the centre to create an alumni body to “see how [the students] are progressing in the community”.
He urged them to keep up an ongoing partnership with students and challenged the school to create its own website. He also suggested that the centre “explore small loans to support students in nurturing new business”.
The Kuru Kuru Training Centre which is the offshoot of the Kuru Kuru College and the Guyana National Service was absorbed by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in January 2000 after which it was given its current name.
Meanwhile the opening of the new dorm facility which can house 70 students and was constructed through funding from the Global Fund under the Ministry of Health was postponed owing to the fire that destroyed the Ministry of Health building. Commenting on the fire, the minister denounced “the act of arson” and called for the apprehension of those who were responsible. (Tiffny Rhodius)
Graduation – HMMM! Kudos to the people. Work!! to find job is a headache.
My congratulations goes out to the new graduates, in completing their traing in various courses, hope they can become gainfully employed with their newfound skills if they choose to, or become their own boss and open up their own business.
well at least we can see that those who want to improve their lives are doing something, while the criminal minds will continue their trade, jobs are not an option for the criminals, they want the quick FIX.
I commend this government effort, especially the idea to extend a watchful eye on these young folks after they have graduated to see how they progress.
These are difficult times, and it is going to get much worst. Look what is hapenning around us. Mexico is on the verge of economic collapse. California which is equilavent to the 8th largest economy in the world has collapsed. They are now paying their state employees and some of their creditors with IOU’s
The very same banks that took taxpayer money in a cash for trash bailout scam are refusing the IOU’s saying it is not credit worthy enough. Can you believe that?
There are some who believe that Guyana is insulated from all of this. No it is not. Guyana imports everything, mostly with borrowed money.
If Guyana cannot raise the bridge, they must lower the level of the water under the bridge. Guyanese have got to forget everything they were taught, every advise they were given by the foreign experts and turn to zero cost systems and applications.
If all of these academic experts who taught us what we thought we needed to know, managed to crash an entire world economic system, then somebody is perpetrating a fraud.
We are now sitting back, holding our breadth and waiting for Uncle Sam to pull himself out of this quagmire and drag the rest of the world out too.
Uncle Sam has caught himself between a rock and a harder rock with his present solutions. If he continues to lower the interest rates, he will crash the value of the US dollar, if he raises the interest rates he will crash the world ecomomy.
Many of the people who gave leading edge technology to the world were not academics, they were innovative thinkers working in their basement. Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates to name a few.
Now again do not get me wrong. I am not saying these guys are the average idiot.
Bill Gates for instance, even though he dropped out of university, he is ivy league material having attended either Yale or Cambridge.
The young folks in Guyana have got to awaken their minds to innovative experimental development. I am certainly not suggesting a compromise in the quality and standard of the engineering sciences, I am suggesting a search for local substitutes in order to bring the country closer to the ideal, of zero cost of production of everything possible.
It is the only way forward, everything else that was created in the land of Babylon is collapsing and collapsing fast in front of our very eyes. Do we need to see more? We will, the question is, do we continue to sit on the fence, or do something about it.
Our destiny is in our own hands, no jive talking leader can help us this time around.
Joe.
So happy to see these people move ahead… but make sure that they get out of Guyana because that’s the only way they will be able to move foward.
Don’t rely on anyone there in Guyana if the government can’t control the people not will be able to live there.
Why should these graduates get out of Guyana Randy? Why should they get out and build up some other country’s economy? Some of them can be creative and start up their own business. They have good resources in Guyana such as the internet/cell phones and they can start off working from home. What the government should do is to give them small loans if they have a good business plan or some incentive to get started. Once their business take off, they can hire other graduates to work with them, but they do need a start.