By Mahzouba Maya Faal
The Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology on Wednesday, 31stof August, conducted a ceremony for the handover of TVET Communication Campaign tools developed by ACE Communications together with the National Technical Team, headed by the MoHERST Director of Research, James Gomez.
This is in line with the project, Youth Empowerment through TVET in The Gambia that is funded by KOICA and supported by UNESCO, to fully implement the tasks embedded within Activity 8: Communication to Change Perception of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The ceremony was chaired by the Director of Research, and Focal person for Activity 8 atthe Ministry.
In his statement, the Deputy Permanent Secretary Technical of MoHERST, Mucktarr M.Y Darboe highlighted the significance of TVET towards national development. He further stated that changing the perception of TVET is key to ensure more students are committed to learning skills for employability. Mr. Darboe also informed the gathering that TVET forms a key component of the Ministry’s priorities. As a result, the Ministry of Higher Education is working on ensuring there are TVET centres available in every region of The Gambia.The DPS expressed optimism that once the perception change being advocated has been implemented, adequate rooms to accommodate additional members in TVET would have already been made available.
NdebanJoof, the focal person for the UNESCO-KOICA project statedthat the overall goal of the project is to create an enabling environment that will give young people, especially girls and women, a better chance of finding decent employment by providing them with lifelong learning opportunities as recommended by SDG’s 4, 5 and 8. Madame Joof thanked ACE Communications and the National Technical Team for the effective work done in producing communication tools geared towards changing the perception of TVET.
The CEO of ACE Communications Executive and consultancy of the project, Fatim Badjie, informed that an assessment on the perception of TVET was conducted prior to the development of the communication tools. According to Ms. Badjie, the findings of that study informed the type of contentneeded to be produced in order to communicate effectively. She expressed optimism that these tools will help bring TVET in a positive perspective.
The communication tools handed over include an active TVET website, social media handles, video documentary and advertisements on the promotion of TVET, brochures, among many others. These tools are hoped to serve as informative guides for students, parents and teachers. Also, the communication campaign has already been rolled out with video documentaries currently being aired on TV and Radio stations. Likewise, print contents have been shared with newspapers for more outreach.
