By Mark Kawalya
The Vice President of Uganda, H.E. Jessica Alupo, launched the 2023/24 Huawei ICT Competitions in the Teso subregion while simultaneously introducing the Digitruck Project there in the region. She also gave awards to the exceptional students who finished second in the global Huawei ICT Competitions 2022–2023 in Shenzhen, China, where they competed against students from other universities in top ICT-performing nations.
“I congratulate the students for positioning Uganda’s name high in the global Huawei ICT competitions,” said Alupo. “I encourage students from different universities across the country to participate in the forthcoming Huawei ICT Competition 2023/24 as well as participate in more Huawei competitions because, through such competitions, you get a chance to be employed by Huawei and others in other good entities.”
Alupo underlined that students have the opportunity to create possibilities for themselves and others by using ICTs. In order to develop Huawei ICT academies, Huawei has signed cooperation agreements with more than 250 colleges in 14 sub-Saharan nations. More than 7,000 university students have been able to achieve Huawei ICT certification thanks to the collaboration, making them stronger contenders for ICT-related jobs.
A crucial component of the ICT Academy Campaign is the yearly Huawei ICT Competition. It aims to improve communication between universities, businesses, and governments while constructing a strong talent ecosystem, and it targets university and college students around the world.
Huawei hopes that by testing the students’ ICT knowledge as well as their practical and application skills through this competition, the “connection, glory, future” theme will ultimately encourage creativity.
The Deputy Managing Director of Huawei Uganda, Mr. Gao Jian, said, “Huawei ICT Competition is an international competition and exchange platform aimed at providing students with a platform to compete 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.”
The competition, which has been evolving for seven years, has grown to be one of the biggest of its kind in Africa, covering the newest technologies including big data, mobile networks, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), all of which are important for enhancing students’ employability.
By the end of 2023, Huawei wants to have more than 700,000 ICT experts with the necessary skills thanks to a number of talent development initiatives, including the ICT competition. The goals are to close the ICT talent gap, improve communication between academia and business, and drive industry digitalization.
