Quality skills and professional training

Over the years we have seen the proliferation of many training centres and institutions offering professional courses.

A good number of them do lack the required infrastructure and well-trained lecturers and trainers, but they keep enrolling students.

For some so-called training schemes, they solicit funding on behalf of poor Gambian professionals to boost their capacity, but end up enriching themselves.

We are calling on the government to investigate the operations of such institutions and centres, as soon as possible.

It must be clear to all training providers that in The Gambia that any course or syllabus that is not certified by the National Training Authority (NTA) is not recognized, and no one should be associated with such training centres and institutions.

While we are not opposed to any particular training provider or course, we firmly believe that our centres must have the required capacity in the form of infrastructure and trainers, to meet the expectations of the students and the government through the NTA.

After paying huge sums of money or receiving such monies as tuition fees by students or their sponsors, they expect nothing less than a quality and recognized document.

What is taught in our skills and vocational training centres or institutions must be of quality and relevance to the current labour market needs and requirements of the country.

While many of the country’s skills and professional training institutions seem to be doing well in terms of their course content, quality trainers and good infrastructure, many also are just not worth existing since they are just here to enrich the proprietors, administrators together with their Western partners to the detriment of  poor Gambians.

It’s quite true that the country needs well-trained professionals to develop the nation, but the quality of such trainings should not be compromised.