Young people are being urged to take advantage of available job opportunities as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira warned that many vacancies across the country remain unfilled despite complaints from youth about a lack of employment.
Speaking during the sod-turning ceremony for the Bartica Hospital, Teixeira said many individuals fail to apply when vacancies are advertised, yet later complain that no jobs are available.
“When we are advertising jobs, people are not applying. And then they say there is no work – there is plenty of work available. There is too much work in Guyana right now. We don’t have enough people. So I’m asking the younger generation, whether it’s a job you like or a job you think you don’t want to do, work, get experience, get paid, go on to study,” she said.
The Minister pointed to programmes such as the Guyana Online Academy of Learning and the Board of Industrial Training as existing pathways for young people to develop skills, adding that thousands of nurses, teachers, doctors, and engineers are currently being trained across the country.
Teixeira also stressed the importance of sacrifice, drawing on her own experience to illustrate her point. “I worked in a factory making car filters in order to put myself through university. I was a domestic worker. I was a terrible waitress — I got fired for being a waitress because I kept spilling tea and coffee. But I worked,” she said.
She encouraged young people to take risks and explore different career paths, noting that setbacks need not be permanent. “Take risks. You didn’t know if you wanted to work in a construction site, be a plumber, electrician, or an engineer. Take a chance. Try it. If it doesn’t work, you start over again. You’re young,” Teixeira said.
Turning her attention to the public service, the Minister noted that outdated job descriptions needed to be updated to reflect the demands of a rapidly evolving economy. “Things we couldn’t imagine five years ago are coming to this country. And so we need an educated workforce — people educated well and able to go on to get their professional training to function in these new jobs being created,” she explained.
