By Mustapha Jarju
International Trade Centre (ITC), in collaboration with partners Thursday, June 30, 2022, orientated forty-five 45 trainees who are to be enrolled in a 12-month apprenticeship program. The initiative is part of the activities under the TVET Roadmap to ensure access to TVET and informal apprenticeship in which informal apprenticeship is formalized.
Ngoneh Panneh, a consultant of Tourism and Creative Designer at the ITC said, the number of Gambia experts when it comes to skill work is always minimal and this is not because Gambians don’t want to have the job but because there is a level of standard that customers are expecting that have to be fulfilled and met.
“This there is a gap in the market that young Gambians are not fulfilling, that is the reason why the ITC in partnership with NAQAA together with training institutions came together to set up this program called Apprenticeship Framework, and of course, there are a lot of training programs in Tailoring and this one is to develop and be able to support you to harness your skill and knowledge,” she told the young Trainees.
Madam Panneh further said this 12-month program is designed to give beneficiaries handsome skill training to become highly skilled tailors that will make their dreams a reality, and show her trust in young ones who are to benefit from this skill training.
Anthony Mendy Director of Tertiary and Higher Education from the Ministry of Higher Education said, one of the main principles of the TVET Policy is to develop technical and educational skills in line with the current and future market rules serving socio-cultural, environmental, and economic growth, he said.
He advised the apprenticeship trainees that, in order for them to achieve these goals there is a need to provide them with relevant training opportunities to train youth to learn new skills that are required in the labor market.
“Be open-minded, curious to know, and then be ready to learn and share the experience,” Mendy said and added that the Ministry of the Higher Education will continue to provide support for socio development of the country, we are therefore grateful to the ITC and GIZ for supporting this initiative.
These institutions are genuine partners in development and we wish to commend them for complementing government effort in the transformation of the tertiary and the higher education sector, we thank institutions supporting this initiative such as Malick Mendy Tailoring, Ida`s Idea, and the Bakoteh Community Centre.
In her opening speech at the orientation Mrs. Youma Wally Ndong the Centre Manager of the Bakoteh Skill Centre called on, the 45 trainees who are opportune to be selected from the six hundred (600) applicants to go through this important training wholeheartedly.
