Twenty-one students have in recent times successfully completed a two-year certificate course on motor vehicle body works (panel beating and spray painting).
The development is an initiative of the Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI), with support from the VOC (Vakobleiding carrosseriebedfrijf Foundation)- the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare.
The graduation ceremony was recently held at the GTTI grounds Kanifing campus, along Banjul Highway.
The scheme was aimed at retracing and reorienting school drop-outs into useful skills and professions for effective citizenship.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Director General of GTTI, Mrs. Fatou Mbye said the achievement was made possible by the benevolent gesture of VOC the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare.
"The beneficiaries of this course are out of school youth whom without the intervention of VOC and Department of Social Welfare the youth might have been elsewhere engaged in some anti-activities.
The youth have been successfully reoriented and assisted to acquire skills to enable them lead respectable and independent lives, as well as contribute their quota in nation-building," she said. Speaking earlier, the Director of Social Welfare Mrs. Fanta Bai Secka said that poverty couldn't be eradicated without quality education and quality skills.
"The government of The Gambia has put more priority to education to ensuring that each and every citizenry acquire quality education," she stated.
She said her Department and VOC would continue to render their tireless efforts to the youths that are willing enough to acquire the skills.
She therefore advised the students to maintain discipline, arguing that anything without discipline and respect is useless.
Other Speakers included Mr. Frank Vos, who expressed similar sentiments and reaffirmed their resolve in empowering Gambian youth.
