The Secretary of State for Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Omar Faye, last Monday informed deputies at the National Assembly that owing to a budgetary constraint of D1.4 million, the second batch of students that was recruited in May 2005 for the NYSS apprenticeship training programme has not started training.

Secy Faye, who was responding to a question raised by nominated member, Hon. Seedy Njie, on the current state of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS) operations and activities countrywide and possible plans to upgrade it with a view to encouraging increased skills training among Gambian youths, said that due to the failure of some Local Government Authorities to contribute, as well as the non-existence of the HIPIC fund through which the training programme was funded, the budgetary requirement estimated at D1.4 million annually could not be met.

According to the Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs Secy, the NYSS will mobilize and recruit young people into the National Youth Service Scheme for skills training as part of its action plan for 2007.

He however added that a lapse in the policy objectives is the failure to cater for those discontinuing students from grade six or those who do not have the opportunity to go to school as all the emphasis is on grade 9 drop-outs. “To cater for all categories of youths in the country,” he said, “the government further mandated the NYSS to introduce a second level of youth training called the Apprenticeship Training Programme (ATP), which targets young people who could not finish grade 8 and those who have not attended school at all.

The NYSS Apprenticeship Training Programme was launched in March 2005. The first batch of apprentices has reportedly spent 46 months training in the fields of plumbing, tailoring, welding and fabrication.