Ghana's ecosystem training must evolve with mix of innovation - Dr Ashigbey

Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has said the country's training of the ecosystem must evolve with a mix of innovation in all educational facets.

He said learners must cultivate 21st-century skills, capabilities and attributes: The tough to teach intangibles such as cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence, curiosity, creativity, adaptability, resilience, and critical thinking would be most highly valued.

Dr Ashigbey was speaking at the virtual tech talk forum of the Huawei Seed for the Future, Ghana 2020.

The Seed for Future programme is a global flagship Corporate Social Responsibility initiative that looks forward to giving 50 university students in STEM the opportunity to expand their scope in ICTs whiles advocating for more female participation.

The intensive 5-days experience, which will be held online, will introduce students to new technologies, equip them with the necessary skills to enable them to identify and harness new opportunities in ICT whiles offering them the opportunity to meet and connect with top ICT professionals in the tech space.

"The future is undeniably digital," he said.

The CEO said in light of this, the world needed a constant flow of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) graduates to fill the opportunities that would be given life.

He said STEM provided the acquisition of soft-skills which was not easily gained through just liberal arts and social science subjects.

These skills are interpersonal and cover everything from communications to attitude, teamwork, and networking abilities.

He said technology was still moving at an increasingly fast pace, as every facet of life was now linked intrinsically to microchips in one way or the other.

He said the impact of STEM laid in its role as an engine for global digitalization.

Dr Ashigbey explained that without qualified graduates of these specialized subjects, there would be no internet, automation, and no wonder surrounding the fascinating development in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Mr Derrydean Dadzie, the Co-Founder of DreamOval Limited called on the youth to take advantage of the 'pregnant' digital era to develop themselves.

"The digital era is 'pregnant' with a lot of development opportunities," he said.

He said some of these opportunities were to provide content to meet the consumption cravings of digital citizens, work in their own time and convenience, selling anything online, and acquire new knowledge for personal development.

He said the digital era had increased integration of business tools, communication, and social media interaction and organizational systems and structures and it has increased complexity and transparency.

Mr Dadzie said people were becoming more sophisticated in their request for uniquely gratifying experience and people were aware of their rights.

The Co-Founder called on the youth to equip themselves with the right tools and applications and spic their life with socio-digital tools like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Online courses.

“The leveraging on degrees is diminishing,” he said.