On August 31st, 2022, The Gambia Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) organized and hosted a two-day training and handover ceremony of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Communication Campaign by Ace communications Executive (ACE). The TVET Campaign was implemented by MoHERST and ACE, funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), with technical support from UNESCO.
UNESCO multi-sectorial regional office for West Africa (Sahel) in Dakar collaborates with Korea international cooperation agency (KOICA), and The Gambia government through MoHERST and other stakeholders in the implementation of the youth empowerment through TVET project in The Gambia. The overall objectives of the project is to create an enabling environment that will give young people, especially girls and women a better chance of finding decent employment by providing them with lifelong learning opportunities as recommended by SDGs 4, 5 and 8.
In his opening remarks, Mr Mucktarr MY Daboe, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of MOHERST, emphasized the importance of the TVET Communication Campaign and the need to sensitize and change the perceptions of the relevant stakeholders on TVET in The Gambia.
Ndeban Joof-Ndong, the UNESCO focal person on the TVET project, acknowledged all the stakeholders in the development and implementation of a communication campaign to sensitize the stakeholders, including the general public, on the significance of TVET in sustainable development.
ACE later presented the communications tools developed for the communication campaign. Such communications tools presented were a TVET website, in addition to multi-media (videos, audios, images) and print media products (brochures, fliers, billboards, and newspaper articles).
On day two of the training and handover ceremony, ACE presented the detailed TVET communication and visibility campaign plan and strategies. This included playing the main communications campaign video contents, providing a target audience analysis (including a demographic of selected audiences) and analysing key messages from the eight-minutes documentary and a two minutes pro-TVET advert.
In her remarks, Fatim Badjie, CEO of ACE, emphasized the need for continuous training of skilled workers to build a stronger economy in The Gambia. She also expressed her pleasure in being part of the development and implementation of a communication campaign for such an important project with the help of her team and other stakeholders.
Later on the ceremony, the official and symbolic handover of all campaign deliverables of the TVET communication campaign developed by ACE was presented by Fatim Badjie to the Deputy Permanent Secretary of MoHERST, who attended on behalf of the Minister, Honourable Pierre Gomez.
TVET provided young people, especially girls and women, a better chance of finding decent employment, while also providing them with lifelong learning opportunities. To learn more about TVET in The Gambia, visit the TVET resource website on www.tvetgambia.com.
