Global ICT infrastructure provider, Huawei Technologies, inaugurated the first ever ICT Academy for Ugandan students in its bid to forward a digital livelihood for communities. The event saw the company sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Makerere University to situate the Academy within the institution.
The ICT Academy is an initiative to train over 1,000 students free of charge in ICT related developments, such as telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services.
It is at the event that Huawei also flagged off Students to China for its annual ‘Seeds for the Future’ program in which 10 students, from a number of Universities in Uganda, will travel for a two-week intense technological training from various Chinese universities.
Seeds for the Future is a Huawei Corporate Social Responsibility program that seeks to establish collaboration with local governments, higher education institutes and other organisations to select top university students and young government officials to study and gain work experience at Huawei’s headquarters in China.
Mr. Liujiawei, the Managing Director of Huawei asserted that the students will leave for China on 17th May and return on 2nd June, and it is on the fly-out that they will undergo training in the latest technological trends such as 5G.
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The Minister for ICT and National Guidance in Uganda, Honorable Frank Tumwebaze was grateful for Huawei’s continued support towards the skilling and nurturing of ICT talent in the country. He as well cited the efforts of the program since 2016, stating that it has started to gain fruit because of the visible high rates of employment by its participants.
In attendance was the representative of Chinese Embassy to Uganda, Hon. Chen Huixin, who noted the ability of ICT in transforming economies through creations of jobs.
Huawei also awarded the students that emerged best from last year’s innovation competitions that were held at University level, where the top 3 students were flown to South Africa for regional finals and extensive training.