By Edward Acquah
Accra, Nov. 8, GNA – Speakers at a conference on immersive technologies have called for “fundamental changes” in the training of students to prepare them for careers in the future technology market.
They said students must be equipped with the needed skills in emerging technologies, adding that the country needed more content creators, web developers, programmers, and other professionals to spearhead the change.
Immersive technology is an integration of virtual content with the physical environment in a way that allows the user to engage naturally with the blended reality.
In an immersive experience, the user accepts virtual elements of their environment as part of the whole, potentially becoming less conscious that those elements are not part of physical reality.
The conference, which was organised by the OpenLabs Ghana in collaboration with the Bluecrest College, and DNX Studios, educated participants on immersive technologies in a bid to prepare them for the job market.
More than 100 students drawn selected Senior High Schools and other institutions participated in the conference.
Mr Isaac Newton Acquah, National Project Coordinator, Ghana Tech – International Trade Centre, said about 50 per cent of the future jobs in the technological space were yet to be established.
He said the pace at which technology was evolving and transforming various disciplines required the development of new set of skills and competence to ensure easy employability of students in that space.
“Instead of textbook writers, you will need more virtual reality sets or modules for schools to use. Whether it is biology, chemistry, history, you can create what the children can understand and relate to better,” Mr Acquah said.
He commended the Ghana Education Service for introducing robotic training in schools and called for more private-government collaborations to train teachers on emerging technologies to implement the change in schools.
“We need content creators. We need to get into a mentality where we say content creation is also a valuable career and incentify and encourage people to go into creative fields,” Mr Acquah said.
Mr Destiny Adzaho, a 3D Developer at DNX Studios, urged students to disregard the notion that immersive technology was a difficult area and encouraged them to explore and learn about emerging technologies.
“There are career opportunities in this space. Across the globe, there is the need for people who can create the modules. There are also sales executives, marketers, programmers, web developers and other sustainable careers,” he said.
Mr Asadullah, Regional Sales Head, OpenLabs Ghana, said nominations for the institution’s annual scholarship programme was still open and would be closed at the end of the year.
He said this year’s programme would offer special opportunity to women and persons living with disability to pursue various programmes at the OpenLabs as part of its corporate social responsibility.
GNA