Students Encouraged to Build Technology Skills

Students should build their technology skills and seek careers in the lucrative cyber security sector, says Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with oversight for Skills and Digital Transformation, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon.

Delivering the keynote address during the launch of a free wi-fi hotspot in Waterford, St. Catherine, on Thursday (February 22), the Minister told scores of school children that having qualifications in cyber security will deliver high paying jobs.

“If you are looking for a career that is going to make you a lot of money, cyber security is one. We need three million workers globally in cyber security,” she said.

The wi-fi facility was developed and installed in the community by the Universal Service Fund (USF).

Dr. Morris Dixon urged the students not to use the system solely for leisure, as their careers can be enhanced by reliable internet access.

“If you have any certification in cyber security, you are guaranteed a job, and it is a good paying job, either here or globally,” the Minister said, adding that persons should not only be users of technology, but should also be creating it.

“It is critical that we don’t just consume things. We want you to be the ones that are saying to the world, ‘here is the technology’ in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and technology in tourism,” she added.

Senator Morris Dixon advised that the HEART/NSTA Trust offers various digital training courses, noting that the institution is “very digitally oriented, and everything that we teach, has technology at its base.”

The Minister said that from as early as primary school and high school, young people must seek to understand the various technology tools, as no industry will be “left untouched” by technology.

“Government envisions a country where every child feels that the world is theirs, and that they have the tools to make a real good life,” Senator Morris Dixon added.

The USF is an agency of the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport.

It was established in 2005 with a mandate of bridging the digital divide, through the provision of Internet access to everyone.

The entity has been instrumental in executing projects, such as the Community Wi-Fi programme, for which there are scores of sites located in communities islandwide.