By Politico Staff writer
President Julius Maada Bio on Wednesday officially commissioned the Government Technical Institute in Kambia Town, Northern Sierra Leone.
The institute which was part funded by the Islamic Development Bank, is one of about a dozen being rolled out across the country as part of the government’s effort to increase access to technical and vocational training opportunities.
Paramount Chief Bai Shebora Yek II of Samu Chiefdom said that they were pleased that the government had constructed the facility to enable their children to acquire technical skills without moving out to other places. He said they would stand with the government for that and were ready to support its programmes.
Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Professor Aiah Gbakima, said that because of the massive skills gap that he inherited, the government decided to operationalise ten technical-vocational institutes with plans for more in other parts of the country. Professor Gbakima also said that his ministry was grateful to the President for the support and he also expressed appreciation to the Ministry of Finance for their effective collaboration on the project.
President Bio, in his keynote address, said that he was pleased to commission the institute as part of his government’s promise to increase access to technical vocational education in the country, adding that the project was part of his government’s human capital development agenda.
The President added that he wanted to train a highly-skilled workforce that would trigger off local entrepreneurship and job creation for youths, regardless of gender. He noted that to that end his government had sought to review the Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) curriculum and build national apprenticeships and internships into the programmes.
“Our national policy on TVETs aligns with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - providing quality education, decent work and economic growth, and, industry, innovation and infrastructure. It is also a key enabler for a number of other goals,” Bio said.
He also expressed hope that they could train a skilled labour force that would serve in agriculture and agribusiness, tourism and hospitality, fisheries and marine resources, engineering and infrastructure, mining, small-scale manufacturing services and information communication technology.
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