The General Secretary and CEO of Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL), Rev. Dr. Jonathan Titus-Williams during the opening of TVET Week at the Atlantic Hall, stadium hostel, said they are in the process of rebranding TVET to make it more appreciable and profitable to the students and country. He said the youth entrepreneurship and employment program (YEEP) has become the key agenda for Sierra Leone because the demographic makeup has young people less than 24 years accounting for over 45% of the total population.
“The youth labour force is growing much faster than the creation of new jobs and young will continue to suffer disproportionately from a deficit of decent work opportunities. For us in Sierra Leone that have experienced internal conflict followed by an outbreak of Ebola in 2015 and are experiencing fragility, dealing with youth unemployment becomes an even bigger challenge in view of the role of the youth in the conflict and the breakdown in education systems during years of conflict as well as during the outbreak of Ebola.”
He said employers report plenty of job applicants, but few with the requisite skills-set or working experience. This he said is partly due to the poor quality of training offered by the Sierra Leone education system from junior and senior secondary school through to tertiary education.
Rev Titus-Williams said it is for this reason they have rebranded TVET from the original idea of drop outs to now preparing the middle level manpower that the country needs to develop and become economically viable. The CEO of EFSL averred that the government is taking steps to address youth unemployment, which include among others setting up a dedicated Youth Ministry and a National Youth Commission to address increasing youth vulnerabilities by putting into place targeted youth employment programmes; enactment of the National Employment Policy, which aims at addressing and improving labour relations and conditions of service of worker.
“The enactment of a National Local Content Policy for Sierra Leone, which aims at ensuring that there are linkages between foreign companies or enterprises and the local economy, thus promoting employment of Sierra Leone citizens through participation in the private sector.” He said successful implementation of youth employment programmes and enacted policies however requires availability of skilled and employable Sierra Leoneans to take advantage of emerging opportunities for employment and/or entrepreneurship.
The Executive Chairman said for a long time now the country has been starved of the most important line of production and it is time to build it up so that the country will move in the right direction. Rev Titus-Williams said because of the rebranding of TVET the government of Sierra Leone has in this regard received a grant from the African Development Bank for the purpose of financing the Sierra Leone Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Project (Sierra Leone YEEP).
The Sierra Leone YEEP is aimed at contributing to the Government of Sierra Leone’s efforts to create decent sustainable incomes for the youth. Mr Katta said the Skills Development Policy advocates for the introduction of competency-based training and assessment into Sierra Leone’s education, which is significantly different from the traditional methods of training and assessment used in the country.
He said principals and managers have a significant role in this transition “in that they will be leading their institutions through it. They need to be able to monitor and assess new teaching practices, understand why reform is necessary and actively promote reform initiatives.” The newly-developed Leadership and Management Development Programme equips principals and managers with the skills to become change managers, to manage CBT&A programmes and to ensure reform happens in Sierra Leone’s TVET sector.
In the knowledge society of the 21st Century, dominated by information and communication technology, and where labour market demands are constantly changing, providing relevant TVET programmes to both boys and girls is deemed central to the effort to foster sustainable development.
Other speakers at the programme were Rev. Musa Fobay, Mr Banya of Technical and Higher Education Ministry, and Mr Allan Quee of Lantanzio. The TVET rebranding programme was sponsored by the African Development Bank (AfDB), FAPA, and the Government of Japan, while EFSL and NAYCOM are implementing the programme.
By Mohamed J. Bah