By Lamin Kujabi
His Excellency President Adama Barrow on Friday September 8th launched and sworn in the first batch of the National Youth Service Graduate Programme at a ceremony held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo.
The programme, targeting one hundred University of The Gambia (UTG) graduates seeks to create pathways for knowledge building, skills acquisition, and employment opportunities for the youth.
In his launching address, President Barrow expressed pride that it is during his tenure as President that The Gambia is implementing a National Youth Service Programme for university graduates.
“This initiative is another clear testimony of my government’s commitment to enhancing the employa-bility and development of our youths.With the awareness that more than sixty-three (63%) of our population are under the age of thirty-five (35), my government has, since its inception, continued to devise strategies to empower the youths and create opportunities for them in various areas that in-cludeeducation, training, and sports,” he stated.
He went on: “We are aware of the socio-economic realities on the ground and the need to offset the unemployment and underemployment rates. It is for this reason that the Government has developed various policies and launched multiple programmes for the youths. The interventions are already con-tributing impactfully to maintaining an enabling environment for a healthy character formation pro-cess for the youth and their transformation into better-equipped and more productive citizens”.
He said the key objective of the National Youth Service Programme is to prepare the youth to under-take national duties with utmost seriousness and dedication. “Rooted in this undertaking is their prep-aration for leadership roles and execution of other national functions and responsibilities,” he added.
The President further noted that funding of this programme by his government demonstrates their strong desire to ascertain that the UTG graduates are gainfully employed within and outside the coun-try.
He assured that the Programme will be expanded gradually through the collaborative links established between the NYSS and the UTG and their partners like the UNDP.
“I assure you all that, after the successful implementation of this pilot programme, we will increase the funding level to accommodate more Gambian graduates from the UTG, as well as other universities in the country”.
President Barrow said the long-term plan is to make the National Youth Service Programme compulso-ry and a precondition for employment in the civil service. In this way, every young Gambian who grad-uates from university would have to enrol and serve the country before going elsewhere.
He called on government institutions and the private sector to support the programme and take on board some of the participants as interns or on-the-job trainees.
He commended the fruitful collaboration between The University of The Gambia and the National Youth Service Scheme, which has made it feasible for the programme to take off ground as scheduled.
“This is the type of collaboration that deserves encouragement because it allows partners and stake-holders to cooperate to raise performance levels for broader outcomes. I implore the parties, the NYSS and the UTG and their two Ministries, to strengthen their partnership and collaboration”.