‘Youth and higher education’ not comparative to skills training

Perhaps the most controversial of all delegates is Lamin J Gassama, vice chairperson of the Western Region youth committee, who insist that providing young people with access to higher education is not comparative to providing them with skills training techniques.

He said that it is untenable for one to say that young people should not think about the suite  and necktie , instead they should go into skills training. Speaking in the conference hall of Farrafenni Youth Centre, Mr Gassama maintained that it was crucial for one to note that young people fall under different categories, bearing different ambitions. He said that those young people who are pursuing skills training with the view that youth should not go for higher education in other professional areas such as accounting and law, among others were thinking negatively.

According to Mr Gassama, the youths should be given equal opportunities of sponsorship up to tertiary education level, to be degree holders than only advocating skills training for them.  He noted that many of the young people of the Gambia are Senior School graduates with excellent results. "It is gross contempt to relegate such resourceful youths to the metal workshop" Gassama emphasised.

He agreed that there were some young people who in order to make them productive and wealthy citizens must be trained in skills work. But, he said, this is not the case for every youth. He urged his peers to hold on to the mentality that it is possible to become secretaries in recognised world bodies. "We must also recognise that we should serve in key positions, both at national and international level," he said.  

To this end, he continued, it is important for us working with young people to equally encourage them to pursue academic carriers instead of focusing on only skills works as our way out when we have the potentials to be enrolled into tertiary institutions.