By Assan Bah
OusmanSillah, the Former National Assembly Member for Banjul North and founder of the Crab Island Technical and Vocational Education Training Centre (CITVET) has informed Foroyaa that the Centre plans to introduce new courses in its next cohort in September this year.
Mr.Sillah made this and other disclosures on the ongoing infrastructural development at the centre,in an interview with this medium on how to improve infrastructure at the centre to enable the accommodation of more students and programs.
Crab Island TVET Centre was established in 2020 through the initiative of the former National Assembly Member (NAM) for Banjul North, Mr.Sillah, to revive and transform the School into a technical and vocational education training (TVET) Centre.He said the expansion is to enable them accommodate the demand of the School which started about two years ago, with the first cohort graduating last year and the new cohort that will soon graduate.
“We are limited in the programs we offer due to the lack of enough classroom space because all the rooms in the facility are occupied and others are made offices. The School wanted to introduce more programs but due to the lack of enough infrastructure to accommodate those programs, itcould not do it in terms of classes and workshops,’’ MrSillah said.
He, however, said that in collaboration with MRC-Holland Foundation who intervened in the first phase of the refurbishment of the School before it started as a TVET centre, they have decided to expand it.
“MRC-Holland Foundation is currently constructing two storey-buildings with twelve classrooms. These buildings when completed will be a turn-key project and will allow us to introduce new courses in areas such as carpentry, auto-mechanics, welding, hairdressing, IT, tailoring and others because there is demand for new courses. Also when completed, we will be offering other levels because for the first and second cohorts, we only offered certificate level 1 and level 2 for some of the programs,’’ Mr. Sillah said.
He further said that if completed which he believe will happen before the enrolment of the next cohort, they will have the capacity to accommodate what centre envisages.
“We will also have a production unit because Crab Island is thinking about sustainability and we believe this facility will help us in our sustainability drive. We will roll-out programs where we will invite interested candidates to come forward. And we will be also looking for partners because the program needs to be accompanied in terms of providing scholarships,’’ Mr. Sillah concludes.
