Story by Abraham N-youngnal Nakpana
Skillset Africa, a non-governmental organisation, has organised a six-week training for about 150 Ghanaians in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for content creation and design to boost AI productivity.
The NGO, according to management, is operational in four African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Malawi with the aim of training at least 5,000 people in AI content creation and designing to boost productivity and growth in the beneficiary countries.
The management made the disclosure during the graduation of the second badge of the Ghanaian beneficiaries in Accra.
An entrepreneur and a medical doctor at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Sylvester Owusu Amoako urged Ghanaian youth to explore the use of AI to create jobs for themselves.
He charged the youth especially the beneficiaries not to fold their arms and wait for employment but rather explore opportunities from AI to create jobs for themselves.
Dr. Amoako acknowledged that many of the youth are talented but are reluctant to utilize these talents for their gain and he is therefore advising the graduands to practice whatever skill they have learnt from the training to sharpen it.
Consistency
“Talent would position you; practice would sharpen you; the world is becoming more digitalize and I am charging all of you to sharpen the skills you have learnt by practicing consistently,” he said.
Doctor Amoako recounted memories of his early life and how he became a medical doctor and an entrepreneur to motivate the youth to explore opportunities from the use of AI in jobs creation, stressing that persistent usage of skills and setting higher goals are his motivations.
President of Pink heart Foundation, Emmanuella Amoako noted that AI was another opportunity for the beneficiaries and underscored the need to exchange contacts and interact with each other adding that socialization was the easiest way to get a job and that the attendees should grab that as an opportunity to socialize.
“Socializing with other people is very important and a key source of job employment starting from where you are right now. I am urging all of you to take at least three people’s number before leaving, I did this some years back and I have reaped a lot from it,” she said.
For Ms Edna Frimpong, a social entrepreneur, graduation is not the end of the journey but a call on the beneficiaries to take up social media as a platform where they can easily market the skills their acquired and the product they make.
She emphasized that there was the urgent need for graduands to utilize their talents to design and create content and post them on social media to attract jobs and contracts to themselves.
“I have gained contracts and made shoes for people through just a post on social media. Do not undermine the power of social media especially you those graduating with certificates in content creation and design,” she stated.
Congratulatory messages
The graduation ceremony concluded with awards to some graduands for performing marvellously in their final projects. Four graduands were awarded which featured three females and a male for their outstanding performances through the six weeks training, they were congratulated and charged by the speakers to be the role models to other youth out there.
In an interview with the overall best graduation student of the one million designers’ program, Albert Makafui Kakabiku, expressed his appreciation to Skillset Africa and his excitement for completing the training and winning an award. He acknowledged that he is going to put all he has learnt into use and advised others out there to come and take part in the SSA designing programs.
“I have learnt a lot from this program even though I have a full-time job, but this programs not like others entails a lot of practical and worth any time dedicated to it” he spoke.
