Guyana’s oil and gas sector is set to benefit from a new Local Capacity Development Register, a planned database designed to align training, skills development, and employment opportunities for Guyanese as industry activity continues to expand.
The initiative was outlined by Michael Munroe, Director of the Local Content Secretariat, during an interview with OilNOW. He said it is part of broader efforts to strengthen local participation beyond procurement and into workforce development.
According to Munroe, the register will go beyond a traditional employment database, capturing detailed information on available skills, training needs, and labour demand across the oil and gas value chain.
The proposed system, he said, will allow jobseekers and individuals interested in training to register their qualifications, interests, and skill sets, providing government and industry with a clearer picture of Guyana’s available talent pool.
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“There is a provision for the creation of a register for employment, but what we are now looking to style it is a local capacity development register, where we will be looking at employment as well as training opportunities. The idea is to have a database where we understand what talent is available,” he explained. “Persons looking for employment or seeking training would get registered, and we would have granular detail as to the available labour force.”
Munroe said the Secretariat plans to reconcile this data with information from local training institutions, universities, and oil and gas companies, creating a comprehensive picture of both supply and demand.
This approach, Munroe noted, will allow policymakers to track skills gaps, identify areas of future demand, and ensure training programs are better aligned with industry needs.
“We would reconcile that with the training institutions to understand how many persons are trained, in what areas, on an annual or biannual basis… This pool of data would then be reconciled with what companies are saying in their employment sub-plans—what skills they anticipate needing,” he said.
“It would be premature for me to say specifically there will be demand in area X or area Y,” he noted. “But if we look at the trends from the first iteration of local content implementation, we have seen employment concentrated in engineering, accounting and finance, and procurement and supply chain.”
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As Guyana ramps up production and brings additional Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSOs) on stream, Munroe said the need for skilled labour will increase, making proactive workforce planning critical.
Under the proposed system, companies would also gain direct line of sight to available Guyanese skills, while jobseekers would be able to view relevant training and employment opportunities.
“If companies have vacancies for specific positions, they would have direct visibility of the available labour and skill sets we have,” Munroe said.
The Secretariat is aiming to launch the register in 2026, though Munroe cautioned that timelines will depend on stakeholder consultations and policy decisions.
“As soon as possible is the intention,” he said. “We will be working to have this launched in 2026, subject to stakeholder engagement and policy direction.”
