PMTC History

On Monday, 5th, May, 1957 Bookers Sugar Estates Ltd. opened a new apprentice training centre at Port Mourant Estate. The Centre aimed in offering a five years course in engineering and allied trades which will eventually bring increasingly number of trained craftsmen into the Sugar Estates and Workshop.
This new plan for the Port Mourant Training Centre did not present much of a problem so far as the Demerara Estates were concerned. The Government Technical Institute was located in Georgetown, within easy reach of most estates and apprentices could attend there for theoretical instruction on block release. Their basic practical training could be provided on the estates under the eye of qualified instructors. It was a different matter in Berbice where facilities for formal technical education did not exist. In effect Booker Sugar Estates had to start from scratch and establish a comprehensive training system complete with lecture facilities and practical workshops. The result was Port Mourant Apprentice Training Centre.
Applications were invited from children of sugar workers from Berbice Estates. Five hundred applications were received and processed. After a series of tests, thirty one boys were short-listed. Final choice from thirty one short listed candidates was made by a committee comprising Mr. J. Milne Smith, General Manager, Berbice Estates, Mr. Richard Barnad, Superintendent of Field Workshops and Mr. F. H. Thompasson, Deputy Chief Personnel Officer. There were no machine tools. The teaching staff numbered only two, Mr. J. H. Goddard, Apprentice Supervisor and Mr. T. H. Skerry, Apprentice Instructor. The first pieces of equipment, salvaged from the abandoned Port Mourant sugar factory, were dismantled and reassembled by the apprentices themselves, under the supervision of their instructors. Such were the beginnings of a training establishment that is now the object of envy and admiration not only in Guyana, but on the part of many visitors from overseas.
Before 1957 many generations of Guyanese had served apprenticeships on the sugar estates. The apprentice was put to work alongside an experienced workman. Training was unsystematic and uncertain, and fortunate indeed was the apprentice assigned to an "instructor" who knew the correct methods and used them.
Year by year the centre expanded its facilities and developed its programmes. By 1960, over seventy seven students were enrolled in the training school, much more pieces of equipment had been acquired, the staff had increased to seven and the workshop had been expanded. The centre now had a motor vehicle workshop and the City and Guilds of London, had given approval for the Mechanical Engineering Craft. 1961 was another milestone year for apprentice training in Booker Sugar Estates when one of the two original staff members, Mr. R.L. Fletcher, was appointed Superintendent of Apprentice Training, with responsibility for both the Berbice and Demerara Schemes. In that year, too, the centre presented its first candidates for City and Guilds certificates. The Port Mourant Apprentices secured 100% passes in their first presentation for the 193 Mechanical examinations of the City and Guilds of London.
At the passing out ceremony for the first batch, held on 1st June 1962, certificate of competency was presented to fourteen graduating apprentices by the honourable C. V. Nunes, Minister of Education and Community Development. The staff had grown to include Mr. R.L. Fletcher, Superintendent of Port Mourant Training Centre assisted by Mr. J.G. Hill and instructors Mr. C. Goddett, Mr. O. Benn, Mr. H. Parris, Mr. R. Kallideen and Mr. F. Haney.
In 1976 marked the passing of the training school from Booker Sugar Estates to the Guyana Sugar Corporation, whose vision was to encourage the development and maintain the outstanding reputation associated with the institution. Since 1957 the numbers attending training have grown steadily and to date over 2500 young persons have passed through training at The Port Mourant Training Centre. The scheme apprenticeship is recognized as the best in Guyana with the majority of graduates progressing into skilled and supervisory positions in industry after a period of consolidation in their jobs on completion of apprenticeship. The skill and competency in technical disciplines that they gain are in demand worldwide. Many have gone on to successful careers after not only in the Sugar industry but in all spheres of industry both in Guyana and Overseas.
Today the Apprenticeship period covers four years of Training. The first and second year is spent by apprentices at the Training Centre gaining competency in performing industrial oriented practical work and tasks complemented with a thorough understanding of related theory. On completion of training the national examination is taken relative to the disciplines, they are following. The third and fourth year of apprenticeship is spent consolidating on the job skills over a wide range of specialized industrial equipment and plant installed in Guysuco Factories and Estates in the following disciplines: Industrial Electrical Installation, Engineering Fitting & Machining, Factory Process instrumentation, Heavy & Light Automotive Engineering, Automotive Electrical Engineering, and Factory Process Sugar Boiling.
Recruitment is for young people between the age of fifteen to nineteen years old preferably with CXC/GCE subjects in Math's, English & Science. Recruitment for new intakes starts at the beginning of February through advertisements in national newspapers. All apprentice training courses at The Port Mourant Training Centre are residential with apprentice residing in an apprentice hostel. The main hostel building houses an assemble hall, a fully equipped modern kitchen and two lecture rooms on the ground floor, with an upper floor containing dormitories and toilets and shower rooms. Additional accommodation is available with the Apprentice Annex sited close by. The Training with a full sized basketball court, volleyball court and soft ball cricket strip in a compound plaited out with flowering shrubs. Whilst the main objective of young people attending the Training Centre is to become competent in technical skills management recognizes the importance of all round development in sports, cultural, social interaction and the value of self discipline apprentices participate in these activities some evenings and at week ends supervised by a Student Affairs Officer and Hostel Supervisor.
The Port Mourant Training Centre continues not only to serve GUYSUCO but many industries both locally and internationally.