Against the backdrop of rapid advances in artificial intelligence and an increasingly competitive job market, Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training, Professor Prakash Persad, says skills training must be given serious consideration.

Speaking at an awards ceremony for UTT’s Renewable Rivalry competition held on Wednesday at its Chaguanas Campus, he said greater attention must be placed on skills training.

“If you look at the situation worldwide, young people are having difficulty getting jobs. Worldwide, not only in Trinidad and Tobago, worldwide. We hear about AI continuously, and AI is billions of dollars, over five hundred billion dollars is being spent on AI in some countries, and you know what is the keep back? What’s the impediment in implementing AI? The carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians, because we need to build, you know, the infrastructure for it.”