In a bid to support the shooting high ICT evolution, several technology companies have risen to nurture fresh talent, and these include Huawei which has held a series of successful competitions for the past 5 years.

Through a Global ICT competition dubbed the Huawei Seeds for Future program, the Shenzhen based Technology giant annually nurtures ICT talent, and now, the company’s final 2020 round of the Global competition is on.

With over 150,000 contestants representing a tune of 2,000 universities and colleges from 70 countries worldwide, the 2019-2020 Huawei ICT competition regional finals started with an opening ceremony on 10th September attracting over 50,000 Students.

Running under the theme “Connection, Glory, Future”, the Sub-Saharan Africa finals of the competition are virtually held in South Africa with over 6 Ugandan students selected from the Makerere University Huawei ICT Academy.

A Future for the Sub-Saharan Competition

During the opening ceremony attended by several industry partners like UNESCO, the Huawei Southern Africa Vice President, Liao Yong highlighted the significance of connectivity in the era of social distancing, as a key enabler for the 2020 ICT competition.

As per a recent UNESCO webinar, digital infrastructure is identified as one of the prominent challenges facing higher education in Africa.

Given the fact that the current COVID19 Pandemic has taken a huge toll on education, the virtual 2020 global competition finals add a unique value ratio to participating students as Liao said:

“Holding the online version of ICT competition during the pandemic has a unique value, it shows that Huawei, as a pioneer in building African digital infrastructure, also takes its talent strategy very seriously. It encompasses three aspects; digital upskilling ICT professionals, encouraging and enabling ICT students, and promote ICT literacy among ordinary people，”

Liao Yong – Vice President Huawei Southern Africa

What Next for Ugandan ICT Students at the Huawei ICT Competition Global Finals

In preparation for the 2020 Global competition finals, Huawei has invested heavily in the awareness and enrollement of fresh talent.

Over 300 campus roadshows have run in 14 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, and a total of 50,000 students registered for the competition. Just like previous rounds of the competition, excelling students will get an all-expenses paid trip to China on top of ICT job offers.

Historically, over 300 students from the campaign have received fresh job offers based on their specialty by participation at the Global competition level.

So, top Ugandan students currently at the Global level in South Africa will stand a chance of getting Internship offers at Huawei Uganda, on top of battling for educational trips to China.

Hence, with a series of talent ecosystem campaigns in Sub Saharan Africa including Telecom Hackathons, Cisco’s Netriders competition, and the Huawei ICT competition. ICT education has become accessible than ever before.

Huawei alone targets over 700,000 ICT professionals to be trained by 2023 through its academy and annual competitions. For now, the company continues to focus on its main goal of bridging the ICT talent gap to advance digital transformation for a fully connected and intelligent world.

Announced by the Huawei Uganda Public Relations Manager Ms. Lina Cao. The 2020 Seeds for the Future program will be held online through e-learning platforms.

While Ecnouenraging Universities to recommend ICT students to take advantage of the world-class training program. Ms. Cao confirmed that the 2020 Program will expose students to cloud computing and 5G concepts contrary to previous year versions of the program. 

Launched in 2016 by H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the seeds for the future program has been ongoing since then. Every year, the top 10 university students in ICT related courses are selected for a study trip in China. Since its launch, over 30,000 students have benefited directly from the program globally.

However, due to the current COVID19 Pandemic, the program will take charge of a new plan aimed at equipping and nurturing students through equipping exposing them to latest Technology trends virtually as Ms. Chao said:

“The Seeds for the Future will be carried out online. It’s called the Huawei Sky Seeds for the Future. Just as the previous years, we have always had several activities such as student selection, interviews, closing ceremonies, two weeks training programs in China in the latest technology, it shall continue the same way this year but online. We are excited to add that the program this time round is open to more than 100 students. They will, among other things take part in training and exposure to 5G and cloud computing,” Ms. Lina Cao, the Public relations Manager of Huawei Uganda, explains.

Who can participate in the 2020 Huawei Seeds for Future Program

According to Ms. Cao, Priority will be given to outstanding undergraduates and graduates who have a strong passion for ICT. Additionally, Female students will get an upper arm in nurturing their skills as strongly encouraged to apply.

Previously, over 22 Uganda students have directly benefited from Job opportunities and Internships at Huawei Uganda. In 2018, a Female Student Cleopatra Ajambo won in the year’s round of the Program and has since risen from just a computer science student to a Networks architect with a career at Huawei Uganda. 

“As a Computer Science Student, you are expected to dig deep into programming as a major which was not, and is not most girls’ passion, so I found myself relying more on getting good grades than building a career as a problem solver, my career changed when I joined the Seeds for Future Program”

Testified Cleopatra

Hence, the COVID19 Pandemic may have dismantled businesses in all parts of the world, but the period has since attracted a new wave of Integrating online/virtual operations, a model that Huawei’s 2020 Seeds for the future program will trail.

The Academy was a result of a pledge offered by Huawei to H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni during his visit to China, Huawei pledged to train over 1000 Uganda ICT talents through its ICT Academy at no cost for students.

Since its launch, the Huawei ICT Academy has attracted thousands of enthusiasts and students with multiple accreditation points mounted at Uganda’s top Universities.

Initially, Huawei signed an MOU with Makerere University as the center of the ICT Academy, before seven more Universities joined the race to host regional Academies.

Among the approved Universities, Makerere University Business School (MUBS), St Martyrs Nkozi, Kabale University, Soroti University, Muni University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology endorsed the Huawei ICT Academy certification path with a pool of over 800 students trained as Proffessionals.

Annually, Top Talent students who excel in the Academy’s competitive professional courses tailored to prepare them for the job market, stand a chance to compete in the global Academy competitions for an all expenses paid trip to China, and on a lucky patch, win Internship opportunities in Huawei Uganda’s Enterprise and customer Technical divisions.

Even with the Current COVID19 Pandemic, the Academy continues to certify students online with over 200 students currently undertaking different certification paths. But just like Student Success stories, Huawei Academy Instructors continue celebrate new heights. 

Among the top Instructors in Uganda, Mr. Olin John Peter from Makerere University is a Huawei ICT Academy Instructor who has benefited from not only being an academy Instructor/Teacher, But also Improved his status as a key contributor in Uganda’s Technology ecosystem

According to Olin, his journey with the Huawei ICT Academy flips back to 2018 when he joined a Bootcamp hosted at Makerere University where he won an Invitation to TTT (training designed for prospective instructors of Huawei ICT Academies).

With prior experience, training, and practice of one vendor, sometimes the cross to another vendor is a steep one, mainly considering the change in implementation, platform, and command structure. I, with some other extremely committed intelligent people managed to make it through the challenge and became Uganda’s first Huawei Certified Academy Instructors (HCAI Routing and Switching). – Olin Said

Olin Peter

By emerging as one of Uganda’s first ever Huawei Certified Academy Instructors, Olin as a certified tutor embarked on a journey of unprecedented learning and training of Students at the Makerere Huawei Academy to mentor skill filled, practice oriented, and creative minds ready to join the real-world Technology ecosystem.

Through various hands-on simulator, and cloud-based trainings in Network Engineering, Cloud Technologies, Cyber Security, among others. The Huawei ICT Academy programs empower students with top notch ICT skills to leverage the high demand of IT Professionals in Uganda’s workforce sphere.

As a certified Instructor, 70% of Olin’s all-time academy students are currently certified as Huawei routing and Switching associates. A Majority of these also work in Huawei Uganda’s technical departments putting learnt skills to immediate enterprise, service provider and technical use.

 Personally, I was fortunate to take more than 100 students, so far, through these trainings, of which more than 70% successfully passed. Most of these start as interns, who are after a short period of time awarded contracts to work with Huawei or one of the various Huawei Partner Companies in Uganda. These include MTN, Airtel, and some special tech sensitive projects of the country

By garnering exposure as Interns with some of Uganda’s top Technology brands, excelling students get to know and be part of the technical architecture, design, implementation and maintenance of ICT systems. 

With Instructor level trainings capped at expert level, Olin has embarked on expanding his academy involvement by Upgrading from the base Instructor level to Professional, and currently planning to upgrade to expert level certification as he confirmed:

With the Huawei ICT Academy, learning never stops, and opportunities never end. I was able to up my R & S Certification to Professional Level, by successfully self-preparing for HCIP’s 3 examinations, which I sat and passed successfully.  What’s more, I successfully passed the first and most essential exam to the Expert level Certification in Routing and Switching (HCIE R&S), and now left with Lab and Interview exams, which I will take on this year. – Olin Added

Furthermore, as a run-to place for equipping ICT students with top notch skills, guidance, Internship offers and Technology centric jobs.

The Huawei ICT Academy continues to groom both students and Instructors through its global academy competitions where International University scholarships, grand prizes including a USD 30,000 take home for the overall global winner are offered.

Likely, Top 11 participants at the national stage and best Instructors receive numerous rewards from the competition, making the Huawei ICT Academy a must-enroll for young Technology enthusiasts in Uganda, with several Universities currently offering the academy’s top courses and resources. 

In a mini chatter, all websites and University learning platforms have been zero-rated by the telco and don’t require any MBs to access. This will help both students and lecturers access university resources without worrying about data usage.

In Uganda, all Universities were officially closed on March 20 after a presidential directive to suspend mass gatherings as a model to prevent the further spread of COVID19 with social distancing in play.

List of the Free to Access Uganda Universities platforms

Previously, MTN Uganda zero-rated all websites on the Makerere University domain root to allow students get access to university resources and quality material while at home.

The University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe shared his excitement through a Facebook post urging students to utilize the new open opportunity.

“Our negotiations with MTN Uganda yielded a lot of fruit as the telecom company has accepted to zero-rate six of our online learning platforms. We applaud them for this. I now urge our students and lecturers to take advantage of this opportunity,” he said in a Facebook post. 

In the light of the current lockdown, MTN Uganda also zero-rated a chunk of e-learning platforms for primary and secondary school students. With the free to access websites, students get access to quality education material to grow their learning curve while at home.

Free to Access educational resources Websites

According to the telco’s CMO Sen Somdev, the Zero-rating of Student and University most-used websites is part of the telco’s commitment of standing together with customers on every move they make as he concluded: 

“MTN Uganda will continue to look at ways of supporting our communities and government, to ensure that together, we do everything feasible to get through this difficult time,”

Sen Somdev, Chief Marketing Officer – MTN Uganda

In Uganda, MTN has leveled its initial customer offers by chopping off mobile money sending fees on top of introducing attractive offers like the Work From Home Internet bundle, Paused Kafyu calls, and most recently, free Overnight calls.

On top of all COVID19 solutions by the telco, MTN Uganda has now Zero-rated Makerere University websites to allow students easily access course resources on top of staying updated with the University’s developments.

The Zero-rating of Makerere University Websites by MTN was confirmed by the wing’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Barnabus Nawangye through a Facebook post.

Prof. Barnabus appreciated the telco’s effort to Zero rate the University Websites and urged students and lecturers to utilize the open opportunity.

The List of Makerere University Free to Access Websites

• Mak.ac.ug
• Muele.mak.ac.ug
• Admissions.mak.ac.ug
• Aims.mak.ac.ug
• Student.mak.ac.ug
• Payments.mak.ac.ug
• Webconf.mak.ac.ug

What Zero Rating Means

In Uganda, Zero-rating was Introduced by MTN with its Facebook Zero portal in 2009. With the Portal, customers were able to access Facebook for free without any active data bundles required.

It’s By the same fashion, all Zero-rated websites including Learning portals don’t require any data to access.

As per the Makerere University zero-rating structure, all Subdomains off the University’s main website mak.ac.ug portal don’t require any data to access. Hence, a student will be able to make payments and access results without preloading any data to use the University websites.