By Aminata Ceesay
Twenty youth trainers from all parts of the country were on Friday trained on quality management by the Gambia Standards Bureau at Khamsys centre, in Bijilo.
According to Naffie Barry, permanent secretary at Ministry of Trade, the training was aimed at imparting basic skills on quality management to an initial core of youth trainers.
Speaking at the closing, she said: “This capacity-building activity directly addresses two key objectives of the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), among others. These are to provide skills-building training and support programmes to young entrepreneurs to improve their competitiveness and performance and to raise awareness about skills training and development for youths.
“The acquired skills will contribute to the provision of services to entrepreneurs in the area of quality. Quality is an essential performance objective of any enterprise as it can provide it with a sustainable competitive advantage for its products and services. And this is exactly the kind of improvement we would like to see in our micro, small and medium enterprises.”
Also speaking Papa Secka, director general TGSB, said: “This training of trainers on quality management is the first of a series of activities to be executed for the youth in building their capacity and skills for enhanced employability. You shall assist your fellow youth acquire these skills and use them to improve their lives but also the collection of enterprises that need your services is endless.
“There will be a step-down training of youth in NBR and CRR. A total of 50 participants will be trained. You shall be the trainers to share and disseminate the skills and knowledge you just acquired. The bureau will facilitate the sharing of your diverse experience as you put into practice your newly-acquired skills by making it possible for you to better organize yourselves such as creation of a youth association of quality.”
Also speaking Fatou Mbenga Jallow, the project coordinator and senior technical adviser of YEP, said: “The youth empowerment project is a four-year project launched in February 2017 that aims to support youth empowerment and entrepreneurship in the country to address the economic root causes of irregular migration. The YEP is funded by the European Union emergency trust fund for Africa.
“To date we have signed a dozen MoUs with various institutions, both public and private that are instrumental for the development of the youth especially in vocational and skills development, entrepreneurship, agriculture, tourism, fashion and design and digital services. Other partnerships are also being developed including access to finance for youth and aspiring entrepreneurs.”
