UNMIL Train Bong County Youths

In furtherance of its strong desire to contribute to the post war recovery process in Liberia, BANEGER-14 of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) recently graduated 30 young Liberians from engineering training in Bong County under its Civil Military Cooperation Program  in the County.

In a key note address to the graduates,  Liberia’s Labour Minister Jeremiah Sulunteh stressed the need for more vocational training opportunities to be created for the young  people of the country  who have the burden of driving the country’s development wagon in place of the aging generation.

He emphasized that vocational training is crucial in accelerating the country’s post recovery activities on the basis that the labour demand is gradually shifting  from concentration on the employment of managers or white-collar job seekers to those that technically trained in various fields such geology, mining engineering and civil engineering.

Minister Sulunteh further said in order for government to implement and realize the full result of pillar four of the PRS which primarily deals with infrastructure development, the country needs trained engineers and technocrats.

He encouraged the young graduates to focus their academic pursuit on the natural sciences instead of concentrating on social sciences if they are to obtain quick attraction on the contemporary job market in Liberia and elsewhere.

Minister Sulunteh who hails from Bong County used the occasion to extol the Bangladeshi Contingent of UNMIL assigned in the county for going beyond their peace keeping mandate to  invest in the human resource development of  the county which further complements government drive of improving the human resource  sector   of the country.

Speaking at the ceremony, the commanding officer of BANENGR-14 based at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko, Bong County reaffirmed his contingent’s commitment in providing capacity building training for young Liberians to make them more marketable.

Lit/Col. Muniruzzaman pointed out that capacity building initiatives are considered fast track development in any nation especially areas that have been affected by war.

The Bangladeshi Contingent Commander believes providing training for the young people is offering economic empowerment alternative for them. The 30 youths that benefited the two months heavy duty earth moving equipment training were drawn from communities around Gbarnga.

The Bangladeshi contingent in Bong County has over the past few years organized series of training targeting young people in the areas of carpentry, electricity, computer science, medical first aid and building construction.