As a National Assembly Member am a qualified carpenter and a professional photographer, says Honourable Borry Colley, the National Assembly Member for Foni Jarrol.
He made these remarks on Friday March 13th at the National Assembly chambers during an intergenerational dialogue, organised by the National Youth Parliament (NYP).
The forum is part of activities marking the NYP's eight anniversary celebration and was centred on the theme "Invest in Young People for Sustainable Development."
According to him, young people should acquire skills to become more employable. "I have two salaries because apart from my National Assembly post I use hammer to earn another pay," he said.
"What should then stop you (youth) from also acquiring skills, hence everybody cannot fit in the offices," he stressed.
He challenged young people to change their attitudes and work towards self-reliance instead of complaining unnecessarily.
Another high-profile citizen in the person of Honourable Abdou Colley, the Minister of Finance also shared his thought and experience with the youths.
According to him, despite being a Minister he is also a practising farmer, well before he became a Minister.
Minister Colley used the forum to call on people to change their attitudes towards time. The issue of people attending programmes on time is a cause for concern for the Finance Minister, thus calls for attitudinal change.
For the Wuli East National Assembly Member Honourable Bakai Camara, if the young parliamentarians want to continue their career as parliamentarians they should be attending the National Assembly proceedings. This, he believes would enable them have first hand information about how the assembly operates, thus learn experience.
Malick Jones, a veteran broadcaster also advised youths to have passion in whatever they do. The love for one's nation he maintained is paramount.
Peter Briam, who represented the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) at the event, encouraged youth to be smart and specific when presenting proposal to corporate institutions.
He maintained that matching their objectives with those of the corporate institutions would give them more chances of securing fund.
"You must go in for realistic programmes and activities," Peter concluded.
