AI for Career Success: inside our Career Connect Forum with LEAD Sierra Leone
By Ibrahim Denis Fofanah
Thirty young people gathered in Makeni, Sierra Leone with one question in mind: how can artificial intelligence shape my future? They left with something more useful than answers. They left with the skills to use AI for their careers, not just their coursework.
In partnership with LEAD Sierra Leone, RiseAfrica delivered the June edition of the Career Connect Forum on the theme "AI for Career Success", a hands-on, four-hour workshop facilitated by our founder Ibrahim Denis Fofanah, a data scientist and AI researcher, and Mohamed Saidu Mansaray, public health specialist and RiseAfrica coordinator.
The gap we set out to close
A quick poll at the start told the real story. Almost everyone in the room already uses AI, but mostly for one thing: academic writing. The highest-value uses, career, technical work, and building, were nearly empty. So the question was never whether these young people use AI. It was how well, and for what.
From consumer to creator
The heart of the session was a single shift: stop using AI only to finish small tasks, and start using it to build a future. We worked through the one skill that makes everything else easier, writing a clear prompt with Role, Task, Context, and Format, and then refining it instead of accepting the first answer.
From there, participants applied it to the things that matter most:
- Writing professional emails, stronger assignments, and a CV tailored to a real job
- Preparing for the job search and practising interviews with AI as a coach
- Learning a new skill faster with a personal study plan
- Building something real, step by step
- Using AI responsibly: verifying facts, protecting privacy, and keeping their own voice
By the end, groups used AI live to create something of their own and shared it with the room.
Learn it yourself, free
The best part: you do not need to have been there. We have turned the entire workshop into a free, self-paced online course, with practical exercises and a certificate when you finish.
Take AI for Career Success at our courses.
This is only the beginning
Thank you to LEAD Sierra Leone for a true partnership, and to everyone who showed up ready to learn. More sessions, more mentors, and more opportunities are ahead. The future is not something that happens to you. It is something you build, with knowledge, innovation, and courage.