Learn a Skill and be your own Boss.

Curbing unemployment by opening a Skills center that would  Train the most vulnerable members of the society

I come from a Country called the Gambia  where more than half of the population consist of the youths. According to the population census of 2013 there were 690,836 youths with a population of approximately 2 million. Now this might either be a burden or a blessing. It should have been a blessing to have a large youth population but in this case it is quite the opposite due to the scarcity of jobs. The unemployment rate of the Gambia is 11.21% and a dependency ratio of 84.98% this is because there are not enough opportunities available for the youths and most of the things that they learnt in school can seldomly be applied, due to a range of unqualified teachers, unconducive learning environments, archaic curriculums, underesourced classrooms etc. 

The only set of people that attend vocational training schools are either school dropouts or for some that see it as a last resort when they fail examinations. The society also has a huge role in the decline of interest in vocational training. There is a cultural paradigm that gives importance to certain professions and frowns upon others such as carpentry, plumbing, Architecture and tailoring but in actual fact none of us can do without these essential services that is why my first plan of action was going for school outreaches and engaging in career counseling and guidance, and conducted interviews with the teachers and heads of the various schools that I went to and I wrote a report to the Minister of Education stating that every student across all grade levels Must learn a skill. 

Because I believe that if every student learns a skill from the grassroots even if they do graduate and there are no jobs available for them they can always utilize their skills and be self employed and self sufficient. 

I belive that with a skilled workforce the GDP of our country will increase. The dependency will decrease, the importation rate will automatically decrease as well. 

As Miss Gambia 2022 1st Runner up, I intend to build a Skills Center in my community that will be open to everyone for free. And take children off the Street that sell commodities and  are prone to abuse and rape. 

my solution is to build a Skills Center that would include a library, a computer lab, a tailoring class, catering class, beauty and cosmetic class, an orchestra composed of only children and a news room and video editing course.  We have over 3,165 schools in the Gambia but In the lingo of today's technological space more than half of our students are not digitally literate. It is not their fault, it is because they cannot avoid gadgets, laptops or computers thus they graduate from high school and still be unable to process a word document. Alot of people graduate from School and are unable to get a Job. They end up underemployed or unemployed because they have nothing to fall back on.

I am ready to train them free of charge and later employ them until they are ready to establish their own businesses.

my target population are the children, the Youth and Women because if you look at the statistics you would see that they are the most underrepresented in all aspects of the economy. They are the most vulnerable and are subject to abuse, discrimination, and violence. 

Children deserve to be taught useful things in life. They need to be well groomed and well equipped with the requisite knowledge that will catapult them to the next level and be useful citizens of the country.

The youths constitute more than half of the population. However, due to lack of opportunities most of them have ventured into irregular migration, taking of drugs and Robbery. I believe if they are given the opportunity to develop themselves by providing an institution where they will learn a skill and better develop themselves and make an honest living  they will be self-sufficient.

From medieval days till now, women have been subjected to numerous human rights abuses. They've been victims of human trafficking,  sexual assault, and gender based violence. They are usually given or denied jobs without merits but purposely to take advantage of them. 

The women in my community wake up as early as 3am to go buy commodities to sell. 

It is their only source of survival. And the money they make cannot take care of all the things they need, likewise their children 

Which is why the skills center I intend to build will go a long way in raising their standard of living.

I am an aspiring legal practitioner I recently completed my bachelors degree in law(LLB) and I always promote justice, equity and good conscience and I've instilled that into my members; to be patriotic citizens and good ambassadors of the country. My Team members consists of all my mentees. Most of them are inhabitants of my community and some from other parts of the country but within thesame region. I delegate duties to the old serving members. They are as agile and vibrant as I am. Having a nurse, a would be architect and an environmentalist.  They are well abreast of the issues that are affecting our community and are able to come up with viable solutions.

They are quite patient, curious and eager to learn. They always acknowledge their mistakes and always try to work on their flaws.

When I was 12 years old I started a foundation wherein I taught students in my neighborhood how to read and write. As young as I was I was resilient to make an impact. I was privileged to have  gone to a good school, but the children in my neighborhood couldn't afford it and their parents did not prioritize education. Thus the children in turn were not motivated to learn. I created a fun environment for them and I was ecstatic to see how they were improving. As i grew older I started teaching them public speaking, debate, poetry,acting skills and career counseling. One of my mentees is now a nurse and one of them is studying Architecture and that alone is rewarding to me.

In September 2022 i was hired by the Center for Research and strategic Studies to conduct a survey in the rural areas that was geared towards knowing their opinion on social, educational economical, political,and environmental issues. One of the questions on the questionnaire with regards to Education stated whether there were any children in the community that were of school going age but are not in school. every community that I went to affirmed that alot of children are not in School and that most of their children drop out of school due to lack of financial support. As a result of the touching stories i heard i decided to contest for the Miss Gambia Beauty Pageant so that I could work on my project which was centered on Restructuring our education system to achieve Sustainable development.

I did a community outreach in my neighborhood and my target audience were women and children.I spoke to them about the importance of education and vocational training skills. I pleaded with them to pay attention to their children's academic progress and I informed them about my proposed topic and indeed They were excited about it 

 I went to 7 schools  within my region and 1in the Rural area. 

Cumulatively all the schools i went to did not have a computer lab, the classrooms were overcrowded, not every student had a textbook, they were sitting in corrugated classrooms. The children in the kindergarten classes did not have toys nor a tv where they could learn visually. When I look at the learning environment of other countries and look at ours I feel disdained. 

When I completed the School outreach I wrote a report and a proposal to the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education and one of the things I proposed was that every student Must learn a skill across all grade levels including children in their formative years.

most of the skills centers in my country are limited to the youth and the older people. The children are not put into the picture. I want the children to be part of the picture because then they will have enough experience to Excell. Imagine 3 year Olds being able to access word and spreadsheet documents and learning to design prototypes

I want that by next year myskills center in existence and to Train as many people as possible. To have as many trainees as possible most especially child vendors and the market sellers to indulge in more profitable businesses with the use of technology and requisite knowledge and expertise 

My project will mostly rely on technology because most of the courses will be done online, even the tutorials. the computer lab is set up for the children to be digitally literate and also learn to code and invent their own games . The students would recycle biodegradable materials and plastics into finished products

In 2020 i mentored 14 people  in 2022  till date i mentor  more than 23 people

By 2024 I intend to train more than 100 people  from all demographics but most especially women and Children

Financial security is a big problem. It is always difficult to accumulate funds. As we would be training novice people it would be somewhat slow for all of them the grasp the concepts and culturally I doubt that most men will allow their wives to attend the sessions but with due sensitization and community outreach this would be solved

my own foundation Keystone Foundation in collaboration with the Gambia Fashion designers association and Biddy's Promotion and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. These organizations are the executives behind the miss Gambia Pageant that gave me the platform to advocate for our educational system and the inculcation of skills acquisition. We have also worked with Timbooktoo over the years and they have been the ones that donate us books. 

I mentor children advocacy skills public speaking career counseling and design. I conduct all the seminars in my class and it has had vast impact in their examination results and basic interpersonal skills .

I have reduced the illiteracy rate in my community by teaching the children how to read and write because most of the students graduate and are still unable to read. I bring on board people from their distinct areas to talk or teach them how to be safe on the internet and how to do away with abuse and trauma 

through the relevant stakeholders like the ministry of education and international bodies such as UN offices such as UNICEF sustained donors. Selling of the goods that we produce to the government and non governmental bodies. 

Catering for state functions and workshops and media advertisements of the things we make and sell