The Young Journalists Association of the Gambia (YJAG) in partnership with The Gambia Press Union (GPU) and Media Academy for Journalism and Communication (MAJaC) recently concluded a two-day day capacity building for press club coordinators from various schools within the Greater Banjul area.

The two-day training was part of the CISU Project targeting 20 participants.

The initiative was also designed to arm participants with the requisite knowledge in news gathering, processing and analysis, news presentation, basic media law and ethics as well as a special course on how to train press clubs.

Isatou Keita, vice president of the Gambia Press Union, reminded that the training would help those press club coordinators to also train students, who want to become career journalists at their various schools.

"The training will help these coordinators to train the press club members at their various schools on basic news writing skills, principles of journalism and it will also help them to know the ethics of the journalism and media law."

Yankuba Jallow, president of the Young Journalists Association of the Gambia (YJAG), said the move is part of their mission to train the press coordinators as most of the young journalists in the country started their media work at school press clubs.

He stressed that YJAG strongest arm is the press clubs and they would not leave them behind.

"It is part of YJAG's mission to train members of the school clubs across the country. So this is the first phase of the training supported by the GPU. We will continue to do more with support or without the support."

Almamay Dumbuya, press club coordinator from Kotu Senior Secondary School, said the training would help the press coordinators better manage their various schools.

He advised the members to be focused in their education so that they can become good journalists in the country.