NAIROBI: The ICT Authority and Huawei have sent off 10 students from various local universities to China, to further develop their professional and practical skills in technology.
In China, the students will receive advanced training in requisite ICT skills whilst providing them with the opportunity to apply the latest technologies from top IT specialists at the Huawei University. So far, 28 engineering students have benefited from the Huawei Seeds for the Future programme, which commenced in June 2014.
"We are happy to announce that of the 18 past beneficiaries, four have already been employed at Huawei Kenya. One has been absorbed by KENET and another at McKinsey Consulting (K) Limited and the remaining 12 students have since gone back to the university to complete their studies," said ICT Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang'i.
The two-month programme offers internship to top engineering students from Kenyan universities in their 3rd, 4th and 5th years of study with the aim of equipping them with relevant industry skills. While on the trip, the students will also be exposed to Chinese culture in order to boost their cross-cultural work experience at the Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
"Huawei is committed to bridging the digital divide, giving ICT students an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on work experience both in Kenya and China, therefore enabling them to be fully immersed in a global business operation, cross-cultural work practices and the Chinese culture," said Dean Yu, Huawei CEO.
"The ICT Authority has continued to partner with the private sector towards developing ICT human capital and workforce as outlined in the National ICT Master plan. We have existing talent in our youth that needs nurturing in order to bridge the skills gap which can only be effected by offering practical on-the-job training to up the skills of our graduates, hence utilising our local talent," said Mr Victor Kyalo, CEO, ICT Authority.
The Seeds for the future programme is a global initiative launched in five countries in Africa with Kenya being the first. The programme looks to train 40 students by the end of 2015 and a total of 100 students in three years.
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