He acknowledged that youth play a significant role towards the socio-economic development of all countries and sought the need to create strategies for employment opportunities.
VP Jallow made these remarks on Tuesday as he presided over the swearing-in-ceremony of 200 corps members of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS) at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
The swearing-in ceremony marked the 15th batch of the NYSS Skills Acquisition Training Programme amid completing five weeks orientation training, which was administered by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and implemented by the NYSS.
Jallow further revealed that with more than 70% of The Gambia’s population under the age of 35, The Gambia has a lot to tap into with the younger generation.
He said that the government has developed various youth intervention programmes which are geared towards helping and creating the enabling environments to build the skills and characters of the youth to become productive citizens.
VP Jallow revealed that the implementation of the National Youth Service Scheme skills acquisition development programme is geared towards preparing the youth to undertake skills training of their choice from various technical and vocational training institutions in The Gambia.
“As part of the preparations for undertaking such training, the NYSS ensures that the corp members are orientated to take utmost seriousness with their training as they prepare to face the challenges of skills training in the TVET training institutions,” he said.
He stated that the orientation of the NYSS is part of the pre-training programme before the deployment of the corp members to the training institutions for their skills training programmes.
Jallow also assured corp members that the government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports will be provided with the required resources to succeed in the programme and create the difference in their skills acquisition training programme until they graduate.
He further assured that the government will provide corp members with full scholarship package to study the skills of their choice in the TVET institutions in The Gambia.
He added that they will be provided with monthly stipends throughout the duration of the two-year training programme.
Bakary Y. Badjie, the minister for Youth and Sports revealed that the country’s youth population which is about 60% of the 2.4 million people lives in The Gambia.
He said it is this same category that battles with the many social challenges – inadequate educational opportunities, leading to high illiteracy rate, unemployment or underemployment and lack of social safety nets among others.
He said the effects of these social problems lead youths into being antisocial or delinquents by abusing drug and substance, and subsequently engaging in crimes – a phenomenon that has unimaginable effect on peace, health and economy of the country.
