Strategic Recruitment Solutions Inc. (SRS), a local human resources and talent recruitment firm, is continuing to ensure that Guyanese find work in the burgeoning oil and gas and related sectors and it has trained and enabled 94 persons to find work in those fields to date.
The company does not just service the oil and gas and satellite sectors, however, says Kerensa Gravesande-Bart, its co-founder and Executive Officer, who told Stabroek News that “to date we have trained 203 persons” for a variety of sectors.
This nature of work is critical in light of the absence of a local content policy for the oil and gas sector in Guyana.
Several stakeholders, including the Private Sector Commission (PSC), and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), have lamented the coalition government’s failure to promulgate a local content policy, or legislation even though it has known since 2015 that petroleum production and continued exploration was imminent, and employment opportunities for Guyanese needed to be secured.
Gravesande-Bart, who founded the company along with her husband, Lloyd Bart, the company’s Chief Operating Officer in 2018, disclosed that to date the company has found employees for the likes of G–BOATS (Guyana) Inc., Stena Drilling, Tullow Oil Guyana, and Saipem America’s Guyana Branch, which are all significant stakeholders in the oil and gas and related sectors.
The company conducts training for Basic Safety Training (BST) as well as Ship Security Awareness (SSA), Navigational Watch for Deck Rating (NWDR), Navigational Watch for Engine Room Rating (NWERR) and Able-Bodied Seaman Licences. Ninety persons have been trained in these areas since the company commenced operations in 2018.
Additionally, 77 persons have been trained by the company in rigging and lifting operations, while fifteen persons have received Tropical Basic Offshore Safety, Induction and Emergency Training.
Finally, four persons have been trained in Dynamic Positioning Induction, while 17 have been trained in Customer Experience.
Employer-employee interface
Regarding the pairing process, Gravesande-Bart said “the companies who are looking to hire the perfect candidate for an important position can come to the SRS interface and view candidate profiles and shortlist the ones they feel are right for the available positions. On the other hand, the candidates can upload their profiles and resumes so that they are accessible to recruiters not only in Guyana but across the world.”
More than merely linking local employers with potential talent, however, the company also finds international talent for local companies, and “helps Guyanese talent to find lucrative job opportunities around the world….”
Gravesande-Bart says the company has seen sustained success since its launch, and believes that this is attributable to the company’s focus on capacity building, which she said is strongly linked to training and education.
“The training and education of the employees is first and foremost for the company. They understand fully that the secret behind a successful organisation is an adept team. Human resource capacity building is closely linked to organisational development. The loyalty and employee engagement also strongly depends on this. In order for an organisation to become the best in its industry, it has to work on its employees,” Gravesande-Bart added.
