Over 1,000 Georgetown participants graduated on Friday from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Zara Computer Training Centre’s several computer training programmes, which ran from September 2018 to August 2019.
At the graduation ceremony, which was held at the GPF’s Officers Training Centre, Eve Leary, the graduating students were presented with certificates. The younger graduates were also presented with backpacks filled with supplies as they prepare for school next week. The youngest graduate from the programme is six years old, while the oldest graduate is 75 years old.
Training at the centre began last September with two foundation courses and two Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) classes – Information Technology (IT) and Electronic Document Preparation Management (EDPM). A number of other programmes were offered during the 2018/2019 academic year including Advanced Microsoft Office Programming and a PC Repairs and Maintenance programme.
An officer, Corporal Hinds, who gave an overview of the 2018/2019 academic year, said that their CSEC classes had a 100 per cent pass rate at this year’s examinations with 21 grade ones, 24 grade twos and one grade three for EDPM. They also attained two grade twos which gave them a 100 per cent pass rate in IT.
Senior Vice-President of the Zara Group of Companies Jay Sobhraj, congratulated the graduates while saying that they have come a far way in the partnership between the GPF, the Zara Group and the Jay and Sylvia Sobhraj Foundation. He recalled that the partnership started some seven years ago and came about after just one conversation.
Sobhraj said that over 20,000 students have since passed through the company’s training centres, which are located in Georgetown, Essequibo and Berbice. Sobhraj encouraged the graduates to push to continue educating themselves, quoting from Mahatma Gandhi. “Education is the only way out of poverty,” he said as he offered encouragement.
Giving the feature address was Deputy Commissioner of Police Paul Williams, who said that the graduating class of 2019 is special as 2,366 successful participants would be graduating from the various centres, with 1,106 hailing from Georgetown, 1,002 from Essequibo and 258 out of Berbice. He highlighted the importance of the graduations, saying that it is a means of recognising and celebrating one’s accomplishments. According to the Deputy Commissioner, Guyanese take graduation lightly and should be more enthused to celebrate persons’ accomplishments. “We have to start showing [up] to our relatives, friends and children at graduation and give them a joyous, jolly and happy support,” Williams said.
Meantime, the officer observed that there is currently a generational gap as it relates to IT as children are now more technologically inclined and IT is being used in many day-to-day services. He implored parents to educate themselves so that they would be able to understand what is happening in this generation and lend support. “You will have to try as much as possible to let them teach you, let them show you the important and essential things that will happen,” he said.
“You, the graduating class, I want to implore upon you to utilise this skill purposely and for the right thing,” Williams added as he encouraged the students to use the extracurricular exposure to help them as they return to school.
