18 Kenyan Students Head To China for Huawei ICT Competition

18 Kenyan students have been flagged off by Speaker of National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula as they proceed to participate in the Huawei ICT Competition Global Final.

The competition attracted more than 120,000 students from 2,000 universities and colleges, from 74 countries and regions around the world. Six teams will be competing at the global final in Cloud, Computing, Network tracks. Each team will be accompanied by 1 lecturer from their University who has been helping prepare the students for the final, along with Huawei experts.

The ICT Competition first began in 2015 as a collaborative effort under Huawei ICT Academy, an initiative that partners with more than 50 Tertiary education institutes to enrich the ICT talent pool, grow the ICT industry and ultimately. The ICT Competition is an important part of “LEAP”, a talent ecosystem development program launched by Huawei in sub-Saharan Africa. This program aims to cultivate more than 100,000 ICT talents for the region within three years.

The Speaker of the National Assembly in his remarks said “I want to congratulate Huawei for the advanced technology and being a champion of innovation all across Africa. He mentioned that he has been to Huawei Headquarters in China while he was Foreign Affairs Minister and he was impressed by the technology and work being done at the Huawei Campus”.

The speaker congratulated the students and wished them all in the competition while in China, the speaker also invited the students for lunch at parliament upon their return from China.

The use of technology continues to become an integral part of our day to day lives, both on a personal and business level. It is with this reason that there is a need to invest in the youth, providing them with the necessary resources that will enable them to grow their skillset so as to be able to fit the market’s demand for a skilled workforce. The government through the Ministry of Education continues to create initiatives and programs that target the youth. These programs done both independently and in collaboration with the private sector have not only aided in bridging the digital divide, but also built a skilled workforce.

In Kenya, Huawei has set up ICT Academies in over 50 Universities and Vocational Colleges to provide access to the latest technology training in Networking, Cloud, 5G and AI, annually training over 4,000 students. In addition, the Huawei ICT skills Competition attracts over 6,000 students every year in Kenya alone providing students with a platform to compete, win awards and exchange ideas, thus enhancing their ICT knowledge and practical skills as well as increasing their ability to innovate by using new technologies and platforms.

Mr Gavin Gao, spoke on Huawei’s commitment to building the talent of the Kenyan Youth saying, “The talent ecosystem is the foundation of our business strategy. Talent is the most important factor to ensure the vitality and continuous growth of the industry. Huawei has made many efforts to train Kenyan ICT talent by sharing our knowledge and best practices. We team up with educational institutions, industry associations, and partners to build a platform to foster the ICT talent ecosystem.”

The chairman of the Parliamentary ICT committee, Hon. John Kiarie who was also present at the flag off made the following remarks: “We are not only commissioning you to go and win at the Huawei Global ICT competition, we are also counting on you to come back better skilled and equipped for the new world. We take you to be the generation of IT thinkers and doers that will ensure that Africa does not sleep through the fourth Industrial Revolution. GO WIN! Win for you, for your families, for your schools, for your communities, Go win for Kenya!”

Through organizing digital skills training, and encouraging students to participate in relevant skills competitions, LEAP is committed to improving the digital skills of young people in the region and promoting employment competitiveness. It helps meet the huge demand for digital talent in business and society.