The Deputy Director-General of the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), Anthony Seyram Zu, made the call at a jobs fair organised by the Design and Technology Institute (DTI) in Accra last Friday.

Speaking at the DTI Jobs and Opportunities Fair, held on the theme: "Navigating Skills, Careers and the Future of Work: Preparing Young People to Thrive in an AI-Enabled World", Mr. Zu stated that one certainty of the emergence of AI was that the technology had time to study.

He urged young people to seize the opportunities that AI provides and dismiss the myths and stories surrounding it.

"Many people, I am included, fear that AI has come to replace us and displace many of us. Clearly, it is a human being who implemented a command that AI assisted in generating. If you take advantage of the opportunities that AI provides and apply them actively, tomorrow you can be the greatest in the world," Mr Zu stated.

He indicated that people's lives would become better, easier, and simpler because of AI, adding that the technology should be viewed as an enabler rather than a threat.

Curriculum overhaul
The Founder of DTI, Constance Swaniker, stressed that preparing young people for the world of work must begin the moment they enter training institutions, with a dual focus on wage employment and self-employment.

She highlighted that practical, soft, and interview skills were essential basics many youths lacked, and that the event sought to bridge that gap and set clear workplace expectations.

Ms Swaniker added that the rapid transformation of the labour market, driven by AI, made lifelong learning and adaptability critical.

She pointed out that "companies are actually laying off entry-level software engineers", underscoring the urgency for training that kept pace with technological change.

She called for policy and curriculum reform to prevent graduating students with obsolete skills.

"Why are we still doing courses that are really irrelevant in today's AI-enabled world?" she asked. 

Ms Swaniker argued that "there should be an urgent overhaul" so that education and training focused on areas that remained relevant rather than "courses that are 50 years irrelevant".

AI amplifies

The Chief Executive Officer of Knowledge Web Centre, Dr. David King Boison, emphasised that knowledge lost was not eradicated, but a new form of intelligence was introduced.
He indicated that while society used to memorise and record, people were now in an age where they co-created with AI.

"Artificial intelligence, the greatest of the best, is not from ignorance.

So, if people keep saying that AI will make you lazy, AI amplifies.

When you are lazy, it will amplify your laziness.

When you are intelligent, it will amplify your intelligence," Dr. Boison explained.

He stressed that individuals did not need to build AI but must learn to instruct it effectively.