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The role of technical and vocational education is now more important than ever because of the great demand for skilled labour to support Guyana’s rapidly developing economy. And so a 10-year National TVET Policy was established. In that policy, there are various objectives and strategic priorities, including the establishment of Sector Skills Councils. This is a strategic measure to bridge the gap between TVET and the demands of the country’s rapidly developing economy.

So what is this skills council all about?

Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to establish a Sector Skills Council. That body successfully supported quality and relevant skills development across various sectors. Now, Guyana hopes to adopt a similar model.

This venture will guarantee the smooth transition of TVET graduates from training into proper jobs and or self-employment roles. Right now, the Council for TVET organises “Group Leads” to develop and validate occupational standards on a request basis, aimed at meeting sector-specific skills demand.

The Government wants to make this service more efficient and responsible. So the Sector Skills Councils, which comprises of private sector entities, will serve as the liaison between training providers and employers, ensuring that the skills imparted are both relevant and aligned with industry requirements. The core function of a Sector Skills Council is to determine the specific skills needed within an industry and then work in collaboration with training providers to tailor training programmes accordingly.

Given that private sector employers face both domestic and international competitive pressures along with regulatory challenges, they are well positioned to provide an up-to-date account of workforce skill requirements.

Once established, the Sector Skills Council in Guyana should perform a range of functions in the realm of skills training, education, and workforce development. It is also expected to serve as a negotiating forum for employers and trade unions and, finally, lead the establishment of a skills development fund or training levy in Guyana.

The post With lessons from Jamaica, Guyana to establish ‘Sector Skills Councils’ appeared first on News Room Guyana.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali received the prestigious Global Leadership Award for Open Innovation (2024) from the University of California, Berkeley on Thursday.

The Guyanese Head of State was nominated for this award because of his commitment to the use of technology and innovative business models to expand the country’s markets. The university noted that Dr. Ali’s strategies were researched carefully and documented.

President Ali received the award at a ceremony held at the NASA Ames Research Centre, where the Berkeley Innovation Forum 2025 is currently being held.

Several other distinguished persons, from former United States President Barack Obama to business tycoon Warren Buffet, have received this award too. Those who received the award include:

● 1967 Galo Plaza – President of Ecuador & United Nations diplomat
● 1970 Sun Fo, 2nd Premier of the Republic of China and framers of the
Constitution.
● 1973 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
● 1978 Sadako Ogata, Minister of Japan to the United Nations
● 2001 Miguel Echeverría, President of Costa Rica
● 2004 Tom Clausen, World Bank Chief & Chairman of Bank of America
● 2007 Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
● 2011 Yuan Tseh Lee, Reformer, Statesman & Nobel Laureate, Taiwan
● 2014 Janet Yellen, Chair of United States Board of Governors, Federal
Reserve System
● 2015 Pranab Mukherjee, President of India
● 2016 Barack Obama, President of the United States
● 2017 Paul Jacobs, Chairman Executive Chairman of QUALCOMM
● 2018 John Chambers, Immediate Past Chairman of Cisco
● 2019 Francesco Starace, CEO, Enel Group, Rome, Italy
● 2020 Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies
● 2022 Her Excellency and King’s Counsel, Patricia Scotland, the Sec. General of the Commonwealth
● 2023 Dr. Mark Liu, Chairman of TSMC, Taiwan.

This isn’t the first time President Ali has been recognised globally for his leadership. He was also recognised before for his vision and leadership on environmental stewardship and sustainability, food security, and inclusive economic growth.

The post Guyana’s President Ali receives prestigious Global Leadership Award appeared first on News Room Guyana.

The Government of Guyana is engaging the United States administration on new “reciprocal tariffs” announced on Wednesday by President Donald Trump.

The US President said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S. and higher duties on dozens of other countries, according to Reuters.

Guyana will face a tariff rate of 38% based on President Trump’s new decision.

“The Government of Guyana has taken note of the reciprocal tariffs announced by the US Government earlier today.

“Our Government is closely engaged with our US partners to better understand the issue and have it addressed as appropriate,” Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said in an invited comment Wednesday evening.

The US is Guyana’s largest trading partner. Last year, U.S Ambassador to Guyana Nicole Theriot said trade between the two countries surpassed US$4.6 billion in 2023.

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs do not apply to certain goods, including copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber, gold, energy and “certain minerals that are not available in the United States,” Reuters noted, quoting a White House fact sheet.

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(CNN) Val Kilmer, a movie star who throughout his career proved he was up for any task, from playing a cocky naval pilot to wearing the Batman suit, died on Tuesday, according to his daughter Mercedes Kilmer, who released a statement to the New York Times and the Associated Press. He was 65.

The cause of death was pneumonia, Mercedes Kilmer told the media outlets.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Kilmer and his family for comment.

Kilmer had recovered from a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required tracheotomy surgery that altered his voice.

In recent years, Kilmer largely stepped away from acting, but made a brief return to the craft in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the original film that launched him and that cast into superstardom.

The sequel, which released in 2022 after a two-year delay, deftly blended Kilmer’s off-screen health issues into the film’s story, with his Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the smug but cool rival to Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, ultimately succumbing to an ailment in the film.

As one of Kilmer’s last film roles, it concluded one of the most interesting — and bankable — careers in Hollywood history.

An impressive career

Born and raised in California’s San Fernando Valley, Kilmer studied at the Hollywood Professional School before heading to New York where, at 21, he became the youngest student at the time to be accepted into Julliard School’s drama department.

He began his film career in the 1984 comedy “Top Secret!” and acted in several movies throughout the ‘80s including his breakout role in 1986’s “Top Gun.”

Then came an incredible streak of successful genre-spanning movies in the 1990s: A superhero film (with 1995’s “Batman Forever,” in which he played the Dark Knight), a Western (1993’s “Tombstone,” where he played Doc Holliday), a biopic (1991’s “The Doors,” in which he portrayed Jim Morrison) and a crime film (Michael Mann’s 1995 masterpiece “Heat”).

One of his less lucrative pursuits included his one-man stage show “Citizen Twain,” about Mark Twain, whose work he deeply admired and referenced frequently in interviews.

In all, Kilmer’s films made nearly $2 billion at the global box office, according to Comscore.

Throughout his career, the roles that Kilmer played possessed an iconic quality while underscoring the way his career frequently zigged at the point where it could have zagged, to his detriment if not in terms of the quality of the work but how Hollywood and the public perceived him.

Kilmer enthusiastically agreed to star as Batman, for example, but quickly soured on that experience, passing on another sequel in favor of the forgettable reboot “The Saint.”

Similarly, he took a role in “The Island of Dr. Moreau” in order to play opposite Marlon Brando, only to clash with director John Frankenheimer (exchanges caught on camera) and be disappointed when a detached Brando periodically refused to come to the set, letting a stand-in take his place.

He reflected on his career and life in the 2021 documentary “Val” through interactions he had videotaped with his family and on film sets for years, including behind-the-scenes footage from “Tombstone” and the “Top Gun” cast partying after hours (“We were all at the start of our careers,” Kilmer recalled).

At the time, Kilmer was recovering from throat-cancer surgery, so his son, Jack, read the actor’s written narration — sounding uncannily like his father.

Kilmer frequently expressed about his desire to work with certain directors, showing audition videos that he shot for parts he failed to land in “Goodfellas” and “Full Metal Jacket,” seeking to impress directors Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick, respectively. He also documented his laborious auditioning and preparation process for portraying Jim Morrison in “The Doors.”

Ultimately, in the documentary, he expressed excitement about all that would come next.

“I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed. I am blessed,” he said in the movie.

 

The post Val Kilmer, film star known for ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Batman Forever’ and ‘Tombstone,’ dead at 65 appeared first on News Room Guyana.

A 10-year policy to improve Guyana’s technical education sector was launched on Wednesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal.

The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Policy aims to empower Guyanese with the highest quality of vocational skills to foster innovation, sustainability and gender inclusion. The policy is intended to address the challenge of limited skilled labour in Guyana. It will further modernise technical and vocational education through technology while supporting the development of high demand skills in industries like the oil and gas and construction sectors.

The new policy will bring together various ministries and other agencies with the establishment of a single autonomous national institution to improve the sector’s governance. This will also allow for better coordination with the private sector on skills needed to align the workforce of the country with the rapid evolving economy.

The policy was designed by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the World Bank.

World Bank Director for Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jaime Saaverda described the policy as transformative.

“The pace of in this economy is gigantic and that dynamic growth creates a unique opportunity to ensure that our training programmes are both high quality and highly pertinent and aligns with the needs we see in industries and this new policy is doing precisely that,” Saaverda said.

He said the policy will support equitable access for everyone in Guyana to be trained specifically persons who would not have completed their secondary education.

“We need to make sure all young people in Guyana will have the opportunity to have high quality education after secondary. Some will chose a university, some will chose a technical education but in all those cases it must be an education that enrich your skills,” the World Bank Director stated.

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand during her remarks highlighted the scarcity of skilled persons in Guyana.

“Here in Guyana, in the ministry, we are searching high and low for engineers or even clerks of work, with certain skillset, we are searching for plumbers and masons, and electricians or even persons who have apprenticeship in those so that we can maintain schools in a way we want to maintain schools, now that is only the ministry of education,” Manickchand stated while noting this is the situation for all government ministries and even the private sector.

“We will have to, at some point perhaps to import skills before we grow out those skills if we are to grow the Guyana that we want to grow at the pace that we want to develop,” Manickchand said.

The minister pointed out that while it was a struggle to get to the launch of the policy, that this is only just the beginning.

“I want to say to the implementers of this policy that this is the beginning. Implementing this is where we have to make sure we don’t get lazy, make sure we don’t have changes,” Manickchand said.

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See below the full release from the Ministry of Finance: 

Ministry of Finance, April 2, 2025: As part of a proactive approach to prepare the country for any future health crises that may arise such as the COVID-19 one, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh on behalf of the Government of Guyana and the World Bank’s Resident Representative Diletta Doretti yesterday signed a US$22 million (US$7 million loan from the World Bank and US$15 million grant from the Pandemic Fund) One Health Project for the country that will see the strengthening of Guyana’s capacities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to health emergencies through a One Health approach, and in the case of an eligible crisis or emergency, respond promptly and effectively to it.

The One Health Project will include various components, including enhanced laboratory and workforce capacity, strengthening health surveillance systems for early detection and response, strengthening one health coordination and capacity, a rapid data-driven health surveillance system, a strengthened public health workforce, and enhanced border security.

Speaking during the signing, Dr. Singh said the signing ceremony was truly historic and that since Government assumed office in 2020, during a pandemic, President Ali recognised the importance of protecting the people of Guyana, noting that the country at the time was woefully unprepared, and Government found a very responsive partner in the World Bank which helped the country to successfully navigate that period in a manner in which Guyana is now recognised as an outstanding example in the hemispheric and global community. This, he noted, has led to Guyana being invited to serve on the board of the Pandemic Fund.

“The Guyana example has been cited on multiple occasions and the project checks every box, for example the project illustrates the use of World Bank/IDA resources to leverage additional resources, such as the grant now received from the Pandemic Fund. Additionally, it is a project that is fully aligned with national priorities addressing actions that emerged from the Government’s Action Plan for pandemic preparedness,” Dr. Singh further explained.

The Minister reiterated that President Ali has emphasized how important it is to improve the lives of every Guyanese person in the shortest possible time and in particular, investment in health and education, which are at the top of his government’s policy agenda as well as to allow for each citizen having access to world class education and health.

Mr. Jaime Saavedra, Director of Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank who witnessed the signing said the World Bank remains fully committed to assisting Guyana and posited that the project reflects the strong commitment of the Government of Guyana to enhanced health resilience. He added that the move by the Guyana Government is also an excellent example of regional and global leadership.

“This phrase of One Health puts together this interconnectedness between human, animal and environmental health and it reminds us that a threat to one of them eventually results in a threat to all. I think this is strong leadership of the country to bring together public health on one hand, veterinary science on the other and environmental management, or everything at the same time sets a very strong example,” he further noted.

Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony who witnessed the signing, while expressing appreciation to the bank for its assistance and flexibility, noted that Government recognized that the country must prepare for future pandemics as he alluded to the administration’s previous work with the bank during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Going forward we recognized that we have to be prepared for future pandemics and to be prepared one of the things we have been looking at is how to get to ‘readiness’, so we have been able to do an assessment, and we have been doing it regularly since 2022, so that we could examine gaps we have in our response system. We are one of the few countries, maybe the only country in the Americas that did a joint external evaluation of how we respond to pandemics and based on those findings, we have been able to put together a plan. That plan is what we want to use these resources for to be able to fill those gaps,” Dr. Anthony explained.

He added that Guyana applied to the pandemic fund and has been very successful.

Only yesterday, His Excellency President Irfaan Ali commissioned a new College of Medical Sciences building at the University of Guyana (UG). The School of Medicine is fully accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) for four years commencing from August 1, 2024, and the completion of the building was a prerequisite for the university maintaining its accreditation.

The College has a current registration of over 1100 students spread across 17 undergraduate programmes inclusive of, but not limited to Medicine, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Medical Imaging Technology, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy.

The building consists of 8 classrooms, including a large lecture theatre that can accommodate 210 students, 2 75-seater classrooms and 5 50-seater classrooms.

The new College aligns with the One Health Project as Government remains committed to providing world class health facilities and access to world class education for students across the country.

The post Guyana inks US$22M ‘One Health’ project  appeared first on News Room Guyana.

Guyana recorded 32 workplace deaths last year and amid growing safety concerns, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, on Tuesday said he is confident in the ministry’s ability to promote safety in workplaces and address workplace accidents.

During the launch of Occupational Safety and Health Month at the Ministry’s compound at Brickdam, Georgetown, the minister said over 1,000 members from 70 workplace safety and health committees were beneficiaries of training programmes which should help them to improve safety in their respective workplaces.

This was among several training initiatives conducted by the ministry to improve workplace safety.

The minister said focus is also placed on the staff at the ministry with capacity for the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Department staffing capacity expanded with 20 additional positions.

“These officers have benefited from refresher training programmes in OSH and specialised areas such as industry, marine safety, mining, construction, agriculture and inspection techniques of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSO).

“Most of these officers are now certified as ISO 45001 inspectors, and are better equipped to provide technical support and guidance to workplace parties,” the minister said.

Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton – Ministry of Labour photo

Furthermore, the minister said inspections were done aboard drill 10 ships and FPSOs inspected in 2024. Eight other drillships will be inspected this year.

For this period of inspections, over 4,800 workplaces were also inspected and over 30,000 employees were impacted.

The minister added that despite the ministry’s efforts to minimise these accidents, they continue to occur, and majority of them are mainly in the mining and construction sectors.

The minster also said, “All fatal and non fatal workplace accidents have been investigated and recommendations have been made to prevent future occurrences.”

Hamilton previously shared that the Ministry investigated 144 non-fatal accidents from a total of 543 reported cases in 2024.

Part of the minisry’s Occupational Safety and Health Month activities will be to continue the sensitisation programmes. Already there are Labour Officers in every ministry to do so. The Labour Ministry is committed to the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s goal of strengthening OSH systems in workplaces.

The post Amid increased workplace accidents and deaths, more workers trained to tackle issues appeared first on News Room Guyana.

Sherwin Benjamin, the businessman who was wanted by the Police for unlawfully removing an impounded motorcycle from the Amelia’s Ward Police Outpost, weeks ago turned himself into the Police on Wednesday.

He was wanted for the incident which occurred on March 19.

Police Headquarters confirmed that Benjamin, 37, of South Amelia’s Ward, Linden surrendered at the Mackenzie Police Station.

Police looking for men who removed impounded motorcycle from Amelia’s Ward Outpost

He is presently in custody pending further investigation.

The motorcycle that was removed was also recovered.

“The vehicle that was used to transport the motorcycle out of the compound was impounded by Police on March 29 after it was found in possession of another individual who claimed he borrowed it from the owner,” Police Headquarters said.

The vehicle that was used to transport the motorcycle out of the compound

Reports had revealed that on the night in question, Woman Constable 22856 Grant was on duty at the enquiries desk when Constable 24271 Gonsalves brought in a black and grey Skylar motorcycle without a number plate. Constable Grant was instructed to lodge the motorcycle at the compound.

As she carried out her duties, she noticed a white open-back vehicle with a licence plate marked ‘ON TEST’ approaching the compound. The vehicle contained two men in the front and three boys in the back tray. The driver of the vehicle exited, followed by the male passenger, but neither of them approached the police to enquire about the motorcycle that had just been impounded.

Woman Constable Grant then informed one of the young men that he could not remove the motorcycle from the police compound. In an apparent disregard for the law, the individual responded, “I don’t have time; the police can do what they wanna do,” before proceeding to load the motorcycle onto the vehicle and drive away from the scene.

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