Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton has disclosed that from August 2020 to now, a total of 7,500 persons have received training under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
He was at the time making his contributions to the 2023 budget debates on Monday.
Minister Hamilton noted that in 2020 alone, 2,000 persons were trained. Then in 2021, BIT trained some 3,086 persons and last year another 4,500 persons were certified after completing their courses.
He then noted that under the previous government’s five years in office, only between 1,300 to 1,500 persons were trained. He argued too that limited to no effort was made to include hinterland residents in the programme.
Moreover, he noted that of the 7,500 persons who have received training under BIT, 75.1% are now meaningfully employed.
For the new year, provisions have been made to train an additional 7,000 persons. The Labour Minister noted too that BIT has expanded its programme, forming collaborations with several oil and gas companies and having signed several Memorandum of Understandings with other agencies.
“We have expanded this programme…and we have already started collaborations with companies that are in oil and gas. We are about to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the aeronautic school in Ogle, we have just signed a MoU with the electrical inspectorate of the Ministry of Public works to ensure that all people we trained as electrical installation personnel, they can be certified,” Hamilton added.
The Minister also announced that since the establishment of the National Job Bank in March last year, a total of 3,300 job seekers were successfully employed whilst a total of 239 employers have since registered.
