- The new Centre will support delivery of the CVQ Level 3 Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health, combining classroom-based learning with real-world practical experience.
- The facility will strengthen Guyana’s technical education infrastructure and help prepare workers for safer participation in the country’s expanding industrial sectors.
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – September 12, 2026: Guyana’s capacity to prepare workers for safer industrial workplaces has received a major boost with the commissioning of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Centre of Excellence at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI) in Region Six.
The 2,592-square-foot facility was commissioned by the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning, the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), and LearnCorp International (LCI) on Friday, September 11.
The Centre will support delivery of the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) Level 3 Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health. It will combine classroom instruction with practical familiarisation in areas including personal protective equipment, gas detection, industrial hygiene, first aid, chemical safety, fall protection, lifting and rigging, confined-space procedures and emergency response.
Importantly, the practical sessions are designed to complement the certificate-level training by providing students with hands-on exposure to equipment, procedures and workplace practices as part of their learning. Students will gain exposure to equipment and procedures across personal protective equipment (PPE); atmospheric monitoring and gas detection; industrial hygiene; first aid, CPR and AEDs; chemical safety, including Globally Harmonized System and Transportation of Dangerous Goods; power-tool use and guards; safety barricades and barriers; fall protection and rescue; scaffold use and safety awareness; lifting and rigging; confined-space entry, monitoring and rescue; and basic firefighting and emergency response.
These areas will help students better understand the safety practices and equipment they may encounter in industrial workplaces, while reinforcing the need for additional formal and site-specific training where required by employers or industry standards. This foundation will better prepare students to complete the CVQ Level 3 programme and pursue further competency-based, employer-required and site-specific training relevant to their chosen careers.
The commissioning brought together government, education, private-sector and international partners around a shared objective: strengthening Guyana’s workforce and building local capacity to support the country’s continued development.
Wamanda McKenzie-Joseph, one of the 32 inaugural student reflected on the opportunity the Centre presents for young Guyanese preparing to enter industrial careers.
“I feel very privileged to be a part of this first batch. I feel this program will provide me with further knowledge on health and safety practices, and I look forward to all of the programs that are a part of the Centre of Excellence.”
Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, speaking on behalf of the Stabroek Block co-venturers, said “At its core, occupational safety and health is about protecting lives. It is about ensuring that every worker, whether on a construction site, in an office, at a manufacturing facility, within the transportation sector, or offshore, has the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to perform their duties safely and return home to their families each day.”
The Honourable Sonia Parag, Minister of Education, said, “This success of this training centre will not be measured by the building itself or the equipment in that building. It will be by the training that is administered to those that will be getting into that centre to gain their skillset and their certification.”
The Honourable Keoma Griffith Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning also noted that, “This facility will compliment the work of the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning. We have launched a campaign which we have titled ‘Putting Safety First’ and so far, we have gone into every region. We have brought educational awareness symposiums and talk to every region in construction and this program we intend to run in every single high-risk sector in this country until everybody approaches safety as a priority. Critically we must train more people and train them better, this is why today’s commissioning is so important.”
Phil Doody, President and CEO of LearnCorp International, said “We are not simply opening a worldclass safety and health training facility, we are paring it with a CVQ OSH Level 3 Diploma Program creating an environment for occupational safety and health beyond theory. People can learn, they can practice, they can demonstrate competency, they can make mistakes in controlled learning environments, and they can leave here better prepared to protect themselves and the people working alongside them.”
The Centre expands Guyana’s technical education infrastructure and creates another pathway for Guyanese to develop skills relevant to the country’s evolving economy.
About the Greater Guyana Initiative
The Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI) is a US$100 million (G$20 billion), 10-year investment funded by the Stabroek Block co-venturers – ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited.
The initiative supports capacity-building programmes across education, health and economic development, with a focus on strengthening local capacity, empowering communities and supporting sustainable growth throughout Guyana.
