Some 100 young Cameroonians drawn from higher learning institutions in the West Region have been equipped with digital and entrepreneurial skills that would enable them to thrive and stay competitive in this digital era. The five-day exercise took place 24- 28 April 2023 in Bafoussam within the ambit of the fifth edition of the Cameroon Digital Skills Campaign organised by ANTIC in partnership with The Change Engine, under the theme: "Digital Skills for Youth Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
Speaking at the start of the Campaign's, ANTIC's Director General, Prof. EbotEbotEnaw, hinted that with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, disruptive digital technologies such as ChatGPT, may trigger the loss of some 300 million jobs in the near future. In this light, he challenged the youths at the campaign to tap from the insights of disruptive digital technologies being presented by experts at the campaign to upscale their skills in a bid to stay relevant in the fourth industrial revolution.
He added that at a time when governments and industries are deploying disruptive technologies such as cloud computing, Big Data, advance analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and Internet of Things, Internet of Things (IoT), to meet citizens' and customers' needs, the digital skills campaign positions itself as an open platform for experts to dialogue with youth on how to harness these technologies to create new markets and business models.
Enlightened by this, trainers at the hands-on training workshop who were mainly Cameroon’s top Technology Entrepreneurs and Ecosystem leaders drilled the youths on: Artificial Intelligence which is the key to staying competitive in 21st century business; practical approaches to creating startups in Cameroon and how to reinvent business and customer experience through disruptive technologies.
The Cameroon Digital Skills Campaign, which has become an annual gathering of digital experts young people, government, private sector, academia and civil society, was set up four years ago by ANTIC in partnership with the Non-Governmental Organisation, ‘The Change Engine.” It seeks to prepare the next generation of Cameroon’s workforce by equipping it with 21st century skills, which are needed to stay afloat in the ever-changing landscape, characterised by evolving new skills.
