Huawei Ghana has toured some 16 universities in Ghana through exciting and interactive roadshows to give the students the opportunity to compete in the 2019-2020 edition of the Huawei ICT Skill Competition.
The universities included the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana Technology University College (GTUC), University of Ghana, University of Mines and Technology (UMAT), University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), University of Development Studies (UDS), others were the Technical Universities in Takoradi, Accra, Koforidua among others and top Science and ICT private universities like Regent University and Datalink University.
The tour which was in the form of Roadshows across the country gave the students the opportunity to interact with Huawei ICT Academy officials to know all about the competition. It also served as a platform to discuss latest technology trends with the students while registering droves of interested participants. The Students were also enlightened on Huawei certifications and its relevance for students who hope to pursue and excel in their careers in the ICT and Telecoms industry.
The Huawei ICT Competition seeks to promote Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry technology certifications and develop ICT industry talents for digital transformation. The Competition also focuses on promoting efficient mapping of talents for a sustainable ecosystem.
The Competition will be carried out in four stages; the Preliminary Stage which will take place in the third week of November will be followed by the National Finals in the 2nd week of December. The National Finals will bring together the top 100 students to compete and select the top 3 students who will represent Ghana and contest their counterparts from over 100 universities across Africa at the Regional Stage in February, 2020. The Global Finals which will be held in May 2020, is the final stage and will see successful teams from the continent, compete for the ultimate glory in China. Participants also have a chance to win internship opportunities, trip to South Africa and China, smart devices like laptops, phones, and watches
Last year, over 500 ICT and Engineering students from top Ghanaian universities participated in the talent search, 100 qualified from the preliminaries with Timothy Seffah-Duodu, a final year engineering student of KNUST emerging as the overall best student in Ghana. KNUST also produced the top three candidates who represented Ghana at the Regional Stage in South Africa in February early this year.
During the roadshow at Koforidua Technical University (KTU), Mr. David Appiah, Public Relations Manager at Huawei Ghana who spoke on the theme of competition, “Connection, Glory, Future”, mentioned that, the competition will offer students the opportunity to have a brighter career in ICT while providing them the needed connection to industry and like-minded students around the globe.
He mentioned that Technology is the future and as such students should take opportunities like the Huawei ICT Competition seriously as research has proven that while 700,000+ professionals are expected to enter the ICT industry by 2023, there would be a probable shortage of 7million IT professionals in the tech ecosystem by 2030. “With opportunities like this from Huawei, students stand the chance of mining their gold if they take their studies and lifetime opportunities like the Huawei Academy and Certification seriously,” he said.
Mr. Geoffrey Li, Director for Enterprise at Huawei Ghana hinted during an interaction with some past and aspiring participants at the Huawei Headquarters in Ghana that: “The ICT Competition is part of the Huawei Academy initiative which seeks to develop the ICT Talent Ecosystem through professional skill training and collaboration with Academia. This is in line with Ghana’s digitization agenda and as such Huawei will continue to partner, train and prepare students and ICT professionals to build their interest in ICT and compliment their skills for a robust and sustainable talent ecosystem. He added that, as a leading global ICT industry, Huawei believes in building the capacity of people to equip them for the future and in light of this, Huawei will continue to invest in such resources.”
The Huawei ICT Competition will be carried out in two tracks; the Network Track and the Cloud Track. The Network Track which will enhance and test students’ knowledge in Routing and Switching (Networking), WLAN and Security while the Cloud Track will focus on AI, Big Data, Storage and Cloud Computing. Students are required to select a field under one track for the competition.
Huawei has also made available, comprehensive study materials and video tutorials to help students prepare adequately. These materials are free and available online. Registration is also free and online with October 31, 2019 as the deadline:
Huawei invites both vocational and university students to participate in the “Huawei ICT Competition Southern Africa 2019-2020”. Interested students can learn more and register for the competition by visiting: e.huawei.com/cn/talent
Students and stakeholder who wish to learn more about Huawei Certifications can visit: www.huaweiacad.com