Guyana’s next generation of energy workers is being shaped before entering the workforce, with the University of Guyana’s Regional Accelerator for STEM Students Readiness (RASSR) program preparing students for careers beyond the oil field.
The five-year Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) initiative targets students from Guyana’s ten administrative regions, building a talent pipeline in engineering, technology, environmental management, marine services, business, and other disciplines that will support the country’s expanding economy.
Professor and Former Vice Chancellor Dr Paloma Mohamed Martin, speaking to OilNOW exclusively on July 9 said: “RASSR was deliberately built with the whole economy in mind, not just oil and gas”.
“The point of RASSR — and of everything wrapped around it — is to build a capable population who can sustain themselves and help build our country, instead of a narrow cadre trained for a single industry. That is the beautiful thing about this program. It does not force children into anything; it immerses them in many possibilities,” she said.
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The program, developed in partnership with the Ministry of Education and supported by the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI), currently supports 100 students through sustained experiential learning.
According to the official, RASSR has maintained approximately 97% retention, while about three-quarters of surveyed participants have indicated plans to pursue STEM-related careers.
“Several RASSR students have been positioned to sit their CSEC [Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate] examinations a full year ahead of their peers, and we have already admitted students as young as fourteen to the University from the programme who are now already completing their first and second years in computing and engineering — tangible proof that acceleration works but not at the same pace for everyone,” she disclosed.
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According to the Professor, Guyana is experiencing a massive engineering shortfall, and UG has responded by expanding its annual intake by 300% over the last few years.
She noted that the demand for skilled graduates is not limited to technical oil and gas roles, which is the gap RASSR aims to address.
“A child who enters RASSR at ten does not have to become a petroleum engineer to serve this economy. She may become the environmental scientist who conducts the EIAs [environmental impact assessments], the accountant who audits the revenues, the marine biologist, the security specialist, or the entrepreneur. The wider economy that oil is creating needs all of them, and RASSR is designed to feed all of those pathways,” she explained.
