In its efforts to reduce youth unemployment in the country, the National Youth Council (NYC) has kicked-off a three to six-month internship program for the young people of the Gambia, at an orientation ceremony held at its head office in Kanifing South.
The initiative will expose the young people to hands-on job experience for a period of three to six months, and to understand the basics of internship and how it would widen their knowledge and experience.
The first-batch of interns comprises 20 young people from various youth organizations and individual young people across the country.
Funded by Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the intent is expand the initiative to various organizational levels for them to network and share experience, so as to prepare for the greater task ahead for full employment.
In his remarks, the chairperson of NYC, Mr. Ousman Fatty, noted that the young people of the Gambia are talented, and all what they need is support and resources. He believes this initiative would help in creating opportunities for “these young people to gain experience and be gainfully employed in the future”.
Describing the internship as a way to full employment, Chairperson Bah charged that the interns “must take it seriously. Do not also forget to upgrade yourselves and be more qualified”.
“This country cannot be developed without the involvement of young people, thus investment into youth development is vital. Our mission is to see this country develop and that cannot happen without you the young people,” the NYC chair stated.
He indicated they hate to see young people roaming the streets unemployed, forcing them to turn to drugs.
Mr. Pa Malick Ceesay, Deputy Executive Director of NYC, challenged the interns to be committed and be focused on the task in hand at their various organizations. He said internship is all about learning about the job and gaining experiences, while urging them to be disciplined and respect the work they are assigned to do.
“As a council, we will continue to collaborate with partners and build the capacity of young people and advocate for their involvement in the development of the country. We are committed to the development and empowerment of our young people; this is why we came with such initiative to create employment opportunities for them,” said Ceesay.
For his part, the NYC’s Program Officer for Peace, Security and Justice, Mr. Omar Bah, explained the internship project of NYC is meant to expose young people to gain experience and help in addressing the youth unemployment problem in the Gambia.
“NYC will pay the allowance of all the 20 interns in all the selected youth organizations, for a period of three months. This can be extended depending on the duration of the project,” he disclosed. The initiative, Bah continued, would serve as a One-Stop Center(OSC) for NYC to mold, recruit and build the capacity of young people on internship and prepare them for challenging jobs or careers for effective and efficient service delivery.
