First collaboration of its kind between a training facility and class society in Guyana.

Lloyd’s Register (LR) and MatPal Marine Institute Inc., an ISO 9001:2015 maritime and oil and gas education training and support centre and the ‘satellite’ of the Panama Maritime Training Services Inc., have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly support safe maritime training in Guyana, a growing market for the oil and gas industry.

As part of the MoU, MatPal will promote and host LR training courses in its training centre. Training courses will include Ship Emergency Response Service (SERS), Risk Management and Incident Investigation and Practical Approach to Ship Surveys, amongst others.

The MoU will focus on local content development in Guyana and support oil and gas companies to navigate requirements in the Region.

This follows recent plans by the Guyana Government to equip 4,000 young people with the necessary technical and vocational skills to help employment, as it earmarks $448.5 million to advance the work of the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

Kevin Humphreys, LR’s President for the Americas, said: “This Memorandum of Understanding with MatPal demonstrates our commitment to supporting local content development in Guyana as the region experiences significant growth in the oil and gas sector. LR and MatPal share the same goal which is to properly prepare seafarers and other maritime personnel in Guyana.”

Coleen Abrams, Chief Executive Officer of MatPal Marine Institute Inc., hailed this as a “landmark achievement that will unequivocally boost the level and scope of maritime and oil and gas training offered to Guyanese and in direct response to the clarion call for the building of local content capacity and capability within Guyana.”