The Management of this Ministry on Wednesday received in audience Prof. Momodou Sallah, Director of the Centre for Academic Innovation at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom who is also the Strategic Director of the Catalyst Academy in The Gambia.
The visit was meant to build a partnership with the Ministry and explore possible areas of cooperation in skills acquisition, sport and recreation facility development as well as entrepreneurship to equip citizens, especially young people and women.
In his welcoming remarks, Honourable Bakary Y. Badjie hails Professor Sallah for the initiative and hopes that the new partnership will boost the capacity of young people in The Gambia in skill acquisition and create employment for the socio-economic development of the Gambia.
He also emphasized the need to build the capacity of youth workers and other policymakers in dealing with youth matters.
For her part, Ms. Ndey Marie Njie, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry expresses gratitude and thanked Professor Sallah for coming up with such initiatives to complement the government's efforts.
She added: “these are the initiatives we as a government want to associate ourselves with”.
She reminded the audience that the necessary structures to implement the ideas are already available within the Ministry citing institutions like the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS), President International Award (PIA), and National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI) as training providers.
Prof. Momodou Sallah thanked the Ministry for receiving him and made a PowerPoint presentation on how his institution intends to work with the Ministry to bring more opportunities to young people and women in the country.
He said their initiative represents a unique combination of work to equip global citizens, especially young people and women, with the conceptual and practical tools to thrive in an increasingly globalized world.
Prof. Sallah told the management that he intends to introduce transformative education for young people through the delivery of modular youth work programs, providing accredited awards, delivery of residential training courses, providing joint learning with international peers, and delivery of preparation for employment courses.
