‘Youth empowerment among gov’t top priorities’

Deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Lamin Camara has said Gambia government has made youth development an area of national development priority.

Mr. Camara was speaking recently at The Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) during the Education Institution’s Dissemination workshop Tracer Survey of 2015-2016. The main goal of the survey was to understand the labour market outcomes and employability of its graduate.

He said young people in any country represent the future of that country. “Youth are not only leaders of tomorrow but also partners of today. Therefore, young people are the young social actors of change and they are crucial segment of national development.”

Mr. Camara further stated that the government over the years has created enabling environment for youth to actively participate in any meaningful socio-economic development of the country.

He said numerous initiatives have been launched with the view to improve youth employment and productivity. This is a step in the right direction taking into account that the government through the Ministry of Youth in partnership with the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) and the ICT to use evidence-based methods to support youth employment and development.

“We want young people of the country to come on board and maximize the numerous opportunities created by the government of Adama Barrow together with its development partners.”

Modou Jang Jallow from the Ministry of Higher Education Research, Science and Technology said research is the key to knowledge creation and disseminations as well as innovations that can propel our economic growth.

He said the significance of the document could be as a source of reference material tool for decision making, needs of the labour, market and relevance of training programmers among others and to fulfill the mandate; other research institutions must work closely with MOHERST in coordinating, planning and guiding national research activities.