Skills acquisition which involves learning to execute movements with the minimum effort to achieve predetermined effects is a sine qua non for any meaning development, says the executive secretary of the National Youth Council (NYC), Marcel Mendy.

Mendy was addressing students Friday on the topic "The importance of skills for youth employment" at the Fatima Senior Secondary School in Bwiam during the graduation of its 2012 batch that sat to the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.

He told the gathering that it is an indisputable fact that only clever people can become good technicians, saying skills acquisition is the sine-qua-non for any meaningful development. He said skill is a complex process demanding high levels of sensory perception, integration within the central nervous system and coordination of different muscle groups. "A skill is to train the mind and character of somebody," he added.

He continued: "By acquiring skills, one obtains the wherewithal to manipulate the interactive elements in one's environment to their own advantage. Conversely therefore, to be unskillful is to be immersed in ignorance, disease, poverty and superstition. This is to say, ignorance and or illiteracy leaves victimsat the mercy of nature."

Mendy further told the graduantes that it is crucial for all Gambians, particularly the young ones to be engaged in some practical skills acquisition and intellectual enhancement avenues. "I am of the conviction that a nation will not develop without the intellectual emancipation of the citizenry and skill acquisition being given prominence. There is no denying that the youth constitute the able bodied group of our societies and are capable of making great differences in the lives of many provided they are equipped with the requisite skills.

My dear young ladies and gentlemen, as you all graduate today, I wish to advise those of you who would like to march on in search of vocational training to go ahead with those ideas. I have no doubt that you can make a vast difference in national development by taking up the responsibility of dominating the labour market," he concluded.