As part of efforts to galvanize support from regional and local authorities in empowering young people in livelihood skills development, the National Youth Service Scheme embarked on a nationwide stakeholder engagement tour to meet with Regional Authorities of the Area Councils, and the Governor’s office to discuss and seek support from their ongoing and upcoming programmes.
The tour was also meant to remind the councils of their 10% budget counterpart contributions as per the NYSS Act to the scheme in supporting the programmes that seek to empower young people with livelihood skills.
The delegation from NYSS, led by the Executive Director, Abass Bah, also met with all the sponsored corps members and their MasterCraft persons in the regions and completed their stipends and contract payments.
Mustapha Badjie, Deputy Executive, Director, NYSS said most of the councils were not forthcoming in payment of their counterpart contribution. Hence, the key part of the tour is to remind them of payment and its importance to the scheme and young people.
“The only fully compliant council is the Janjanbureh Area Council; they have been honouring the counterpart contribution since. These contributions greatly enhance and help NYSS to recruit more young people into the livelihood skills development programmes and sustain the programme,” he said.
He said they also informed the council of NYSS’s planned graduation for the current batches on the Apprenticeship Training Programme (ATP) and main skill training programmeafter completing their two-year skills training programmes.
The apprenticeship Training programme, according to Mr Badjietargets out-of-school young people, madrasa students, and other young people without any education background.
“These groups of young people need to be supported if not majority of them become liabilities in society. Giving them livelihood skills will help them become an asset to their families and the society as a whole,” he said.
He explained that the main skill training programme targets young people from grade 9 and above, NYSS recruits them and later sends them to skill training schools, like GTTI, and other formal skills training institutions across the country.
“We also have a graduate program that we launched sometime this year targeting young graduates from the University of The Gambia. Our programmes covered all categories of young people, from out-of-school youth to the ones who stop at grade 9 to 12 and complete university education,” he said.
He highlighted the importance of the Area Council in successfully implementing these programmes. “In all these programs Area Councils are our key partners that is why as part of our annual plan we visit councils to engage them and strengthen our partnership and remind them of their obligation,” he said.
He stresses his office’s commitment and readiness to empower Gambian young people with livelihood skills for a better Gambia. “If you want to empower young people we should give them something that can serve them for their entire life span. The best way to curb migration is giving the young people livelihood skills,” he said.
The Executive Director also acknowledges the great support provided by the Gambia government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports in the program’s overall funding, which is geared towards promoting and enhancing skills acquisition and employment creation for Gambian Youth.
He also highly hopes with an increase in funding from the government complimented by the Area Council and other development agencies more youth will be recruited into the NYSS programmes.
“These programmes are key strategies in reducing youth unemployment and increasing skills acquisition, which can greatly help in the reduction of irregular migration and its associated dangers,” he said.
Deputy Executive Director Badjie on behalf of the NYSS Management thanked the Regional Governors, Chairperson and Mayors of Area Councils, Master-craft person, and Corp Members for their commitment to skills development for the youth in this country, while assuring them that the NYSS will ensure that their Programmes will be accessible to many youth who need skills for employment. Source: Ministry of Youth and Sports Media & Communication Unit