West Notts College students swap Mansfield for a Gambian adventure

Cooking wiht Ida Cham-Njie was a highlight of the trip

The students swapped the classroom for The Gambia for seven days during a fact-finding mission to learn all about the African culture, how to manage ‘responsible tourism’ and get to grips with some work experience.

One of the main elements of the trip was to visit students at The Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG).

The institute delivers accredited training programmes in travel and tourism to the people in The Gambia.

The Mansfield students were able to see how their Gambian counterparts learned on similar courses to theirs.

Getting in touch with nature was another favourite for the group as they had the opportunity to visit a monkey park as well as see the range of wildlife in the jungle from a canoe ride along the River Gambia.

The students also sampled cooking with Ida Cham-Nije, who studied hotel tourism and catering management in the UK before returning to her homeland.

Claire Craig, college tutor, said: “It was great to see our students getting engaged in a whole variety of work experience on the trip.

“Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience for our groups in terms of learning about a new culture and seeing how students abroad work on similar qualifications to them.”