Degrees no longer enough: Why exposure and soft skills matter in age of AI
What should you study in the age of Artificial Intelligence?
It is the question keeping students, parents, and educators awake at night.
For students, it is even more worrying.
You do everything “right” ie, choose a course, attend lectures, write exams, earn a degree, yet the question remains: what next?
Across the globe, technology is redefining jobs.
Many of the jobs that today’s graduates are preparing for may not even exist by 2027.
Roles that existed a decade ago are disappearing, while new ones are emerging at a pace that makes long-term prediction difficult.
We once believed learning to code was the ultimate safety net.
Yet The Economist recently highlighted that even coding is now being automated as AI learns to write software faster than humans.
A recent study also showed concern among IT professionals in the US and UK about AI making their skills obsolete jumped from 74 per cent to 91 per cent in just one year.
Ghana’s young population is entering a labour market that is increasingly competitive, informal, and unpredictable.
Yet our dominant approach to education still assumes technical knowledge alone will carry graduates through. It won’t.
So, if computers can code, calculate, and create, where does that leave us?
Ironically, as machines get smarter, the most valuable skills are becoming the ones that make us human.
The currency of 2026 and beyond is soft skills: curiosity, communication, critical thinking, reliability, empathy, and the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development notes that jobs requiring complex social interaction, negotiation, persuasion, and empathy are far less susceptible to automation.
AI is powerful, but it still struggles with human nuance.
Paradoxically, these are the very skills many young people struggle to develop intentionally.
In Ghana, universities make attempts; group assignments, presentations, extracurricular activities but they are rarely structured.
Exposure to industry is uneven.
A student might learn teamwork by chance, or not at all.
Many graduate without ever attending a professional forum, volunteering at a national conference, or speaking to someone working in their field.
Experience shows exposure changes everything.
Conversations
When young people are placed in real environments; industry events, policy forums, community projects, internships, something shifts.
They learn how conversations happen outside the classroom.
They observe how professionals think, speak, and solve problems. Confidence grows because it is practised, not taught theoretically.
Research supports this. Graduates who completed internships are 23 per cent more likely to secure full-time employment within six months of graduating. In sectors such as oil, gas, and mining, that gap rises to 65 per cent.
This understanding led to the creation of Connect Skills Hub, a youth-led initiative built around a simple idea: skills develop best through intentional exposure.
Rather than focusing on certificates alone, the platform connects young people to real-world opportunities: industry events, volunteering, internships, mentorship, and structured soft-skills learning.
The goal is not to replace formal education, but to complement it and bridge theory and practice.
Since its formation, the community has grown steadily.
Members have volunteered at high-level forums, secured internships, expanded networks, and, in some cases, landed full-time roles simply because they showed up, participated, and learned how to position themselves.
Access
What stands out is not just access, but mindset.
When young people realise opportunities are often open rather than exclusive, their behaviour changes.
As AI evolves, this mindset will matter more than ever.
We cannot predict which jobs will exist in ten years.
But those who are adaptable, curious, communicative, and grounded in real-world experience will transition more easily across industries.
Ultimately, the question may not be “What should I study?” but “How am I preparing myself to learn continuously, relate to others, and navigate change?”
Degrees still matter. Technical skills still matter. But on their own, they are no longer enough.
The future belongs to those who show up and learn broadly.
If we are serious about preparing Ghana’s young people for that future, exposure and soft skills can no longer be accidental.
They must be intentional.
The writer is the Founder of Connect Skills Hub.
Email:
www.connectskillshub.org
