Similar to the existing Huawei ICT Academy curriculum that has been in existence for over 3 years in Uganda at public universities like Makerere University, Mbarara, MUBS, Gulu, Muni, Busitema, and many others. The new courses are free to all registered learners and come with a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

According to Huawei Uganda, the new courses can be accessed online and will be instructor-led in order to simulate the best in-classroom conditions for all students no matter their education level. Upon completion of any course, students will be able to certify for an internationally recognized certificate under the Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA) suite.

Among the courses that will be led by instructors from Uganda’s top universities include Cloud Computing, ICT Security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), 5G, Cloud services, Data Communications, Big Data, and Data Center Facility Management.

However, the courses require initial registration for all students in order to provide a paced environment and access to course schedules. Also, online classes will start on 3^rd May 2021 and end on 24^th June 2021 with early registration as a key to early enrollment to the available schedule for all HCIA courses.

In a bid to favour learner schedules, all courses have morning and evening sessions from which students can choose from. Additionally, all sessions are instructor-led with every class involving live interactive sessions between students and lecturers.

However, in order to enroll in any given course, a student must sign up through the respective course’s registration link for fast approval, enrollment, and gain instant access to the course program as uploaded by the respective instructors.

During a course’s duration, students will have access to e-learning materials and live simulators like virtual routers, switches, network masts, and servers. Upon completion of a course, students will be able to certify under the HCIA certification system for internationally recognized certificates similar to those offered by Amazon, Cisco, Juniper, Microsoft, Google, and the Linux Professional Institute.

With no education background limitations, any Ugandan citizen can apply for enrollment into any of the listed free Huawei courses, and upon approval, no physical meetings with instructors will be required for all students, but instead, a stable internet connection will be necessary to attend all virtual classes from 3^rd May – 24^th June 2021.

From a pool of 40 African teams that participated in the hard to win Sub-Saharan African round. The quad combination of Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, and South African students topped the competition by showcasing skills in Cloud, Routing and Switching, 5G, AI, and VR setups.

With a joint pool of over 50,000 students from 14 Sub-Saharan African countries that participated in the 2019/2020 competition. This year’s round has further marked an all time high of attendance since the Genesis of skilling African ICT talent based on Huawei’s certification path.

According to Huawei’s Global Vice President Mr. Hou Tao, the impressive enthusiasm showcased by students is a good signal for Africa’s digital inclusion rate in an era where physical workplaces are becoming a yesterday norm with online formations taking shape.

As a private company serving the African market for over 20 years, Huawei has dedicated itself to and will always remain a trusted partner of governments and academia in building ICT talent pool, strengthening capacity building and increasing people’s digital competence.

Said Hou Tao

Annually, the Huawei ICT Competition encompasses the latest technologies such as cloud computing, AI, mobile networks, Big data, and IOT to test student levels in not just job market skills, but also their standards in the Innovation ecosystem.

In South Africa, the Minister for higher education Dr. Blade Nzimande inked the country’s goal of repositioning from just being a consumer of knowledge, but also able to leverage acquired skillsets to become a producer of knowledge and cutting edge innovations in partnership with brands like Huawei.

Notably, Dr. Blade Nzimande also urged the need for Pan African collaborations in order to stay competitive with the globalized nature of economies and digital transformation as a key driver.

In light of increased ICT Education centers, Huawei has for the past 5 years embarked on collaborating with over 250 Sub-Saharan Univerisituies through mutual agreements to enable students access top class ICT training.

Through this, over 7,000 University students have so far certified in Huawei’s various learning paths with Routing and Switching as the most popular.

In Uganda, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Vicent Waiswa Bagiire noted that ICT can bring substantial spikes in productivity to address some of the country’s urgent needs.

Furthermore, the development of Human capital is relevant to the ICT ecosystem, and so, with companies like Huawei in the pipeline of skilling more talent, the ICT Industry is able to grow stronger with vast training and ready competition.

The 2019/2020 Huawei Sub-Saharan ICT Competition Winning Teams

Uganda

Tanzania

Team 1

Team 2

South Africa

Nigeria

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Kenya

Team 1

Team 2

Lesotho

Mauritius

Zambia

From November 6 to 8, the 13 Sub-Saharan African teams will attend an online Global Finale which features excelling students from other continents. online.

With more than 300 Global Final entrants, the winning African teams will be able to demonstrate their talent and innovation levels in support of their origin countries and continent.

The Huawei ICT Academy was started in 2019 and is currently present in various Ugandan Universities including Makerere, Mbarara, Gulu, Kyambogo, Uganda Martyrs Nkozi, among many others that offer Huawei Certification courses at no cost to students.

In an event presided over by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT and National Guidance Hon. Vicent Bagiire, the Huawei Managing Director Mr. Gaofei, Vice Chancellors of Kyambogo and Nkozi University, Huawei marked its donation as part of its goal to skill more ICT talent in Uganda.

According to Huawei’s Managing Director Mr. Gaofei, the company pledged to donate ICT Academy Equipment to Kyambogo, and Nkozi University during the Initial Makerere University Academy launch in May 2019. Now, with the pledge fulfilled on-time, the equipment will aid the teaching and learning process for students.

“With this donation, we believe that we shall trigger exploration which lights the way forward. And furthermore, we believe that this exploration begins with sharing wisdom, and exchange of ideas to open up exciting new possibilities in a digital world”

Gaofei – Managing Director Huawei Uganda

In agreement, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT Hon. Vicent Bagiire inked that, skills acquired through an ICT Academy like that hosted by Huawei helps students innovate and deploy fresh solutions relevant to the ICT ecosystem as he said.

“For us, it is important because we realize and recognize that ICT can be used for efficiencies in whatever we do but that it’s also a business. So we hold the view that the skills that have been imparted unto you the students can be used to create your own enterprises instead of looking for employment,”

Said Vicent Bagiire – Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT

With the presence of approximately 8 ICT Academies deployed by Huawei to Ugandan Universities. The brand’s ICT certification path courses continue to be free and accessible to IT students in Universities where the academy is present.

At the Academy, Courses are packaged with equipment simulation software as theory operations for storage, cloud computing, Big Data, and 5G. Then, practicals feature live Routing and Switching addressing and operations on Huawei equipment.

Hence, with the new equipment donated to Kyambogo and Nkozi University. Students will be able to access live Routing and Switching gear which includes Layer 2 and Layer 3 Switches along with Wired and Wireless multi-layer Routers necessary for fast learning and real-world operations.

Run under the theme of “Connection, Glory, Future”, the four-day competitions kicked off on 10^th September 2020 with participation in over 14 Sub-Saharan African countries and attracted over 50,000 students.

Student teams were grouped into two groups based on skillset and region of participation. Of the two, the Winning team consisting of two Muni University students and one from Lira University succeeded in Winning the regional competition against other African Countries.

Globally the 2019-2020 round of the Huawei ICT Competition has covered over 70 countries worldwide with over 150,000 contestants from 2,000 universities and colleges.

In Africa the competition was launched 5years ago as a Huawei commitment to skilling new ICT talent necessary for fast industry innovation and adoption.

During the awarding ceremony, the Chief Guest and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance Hon. Bagiire Vicent Waiswa commended Huawei for the ICT Competition initiative that has mobilized several Ugandan students to build new skills making them market-ready.

“As far as the ministry is concerned, developing human capital is extremely important and we look at initiatives such as these (Huawei ICT Competition) as an avenue that we can utilize to build the capacity of our ICT professionals and therefore build substantial ICT ecosystem,” he added. 

Hon. Bagiire Vicent Waiswa – Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT

In Uganda, the first edition of the Huawei ICT competition started in 2018 with 1300 students from several public universities.

Then, In 2019, over 2500 students from Makerere, Kyambogo, Mbarara, Nkozi, Mbarara, Kabale, Lira, Gulu, Muni, UCU, and MUBS Universities braced the competition with courses in Network and Cloud deployment.

The Network associate path consists of Routing & Switching, Security, and WLAN. Then, Cloud consists of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Storage part of the HCIA course catalog granted to students.

According to one of the winners Doreen Nalwoga, a computer science student from Lira University. The Huawei ICT Competition has acted as a career exposure path to new technologies and innovative opportunities.

“Firstly I would like to thank Huawei Uganda for having given us an opportunity to increase our exposure, knowledge, skills, and experience. We have attained professional certification at no cost, facilitation and awards. I am personally certified with HCIA Security, HCIA Router and Switch, HCIA WLAN. Am currently finalizing an additional course to be a Huawei Certified Internetwork Professional (HCIP R&S). This means I am capable of designing, implementing and maintaining enterprise networks already,” 

said Doreen.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, the Huawei Uganda Managing Director, Mr. Gao Fei, said that the competition is relevant to every ICT student and professional due to its comprehensive approach to skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth.

“We congratulate team Uganda for the tremendous success. The Huawei ICT Competition and Academy is a comprehensive approach of skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth. Training contents in this program has been aligned with skills requirements in the job market. That is why we re-dedicate ourselves to working even more closely with universities across the country to better equip students with the next generation of technologies and create the platform for the Ugandan students to demonstrate they are capable of maturing into world-class experts,”

Mr. Gao Fei – Managing Director, Huawei Uganda

Statistically, with a series of ICT Talent campaigns across sub-saharan Africa, Huawei aims at skilling more than 700,000 ICT Professions by 2023. Hence, the annual ICT competition which keeps students a notch ahead through fierce Global and regional rounds will further help the brand achieve its set academy goal.

Having launched the Huawei ICT Academy in May 2019, the ICT company’s goal is to train and certify over 1000 students free of charge for the next 2years. Additionally, the academy has been extended to more Ugandan universities as Icing to the ICT literacy cake.

While handing over new ICT equipment in the presence of the University Vice-Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, NITA-Uganda Executive Director Dr. Mugasa Hatwib, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Finance Prof. Hisali Eria , and the Principal College of computing Professor Tonny Oyana. Huawei’s Managing Director Mr. Gaofei inked that the donation is to aid hands-on exercises and simulations at the ICT Academy as he said: 

“The reason we are here today is to donate the ICT Academy equipment to aid this ICT Academy to give hands-on training of the academy courses. This is a fulfillment of our MOU signed in May 2019. We shall also donate to three more academies in Uganda”

Mr. Gaofei – Managing Director, Huawei Uganda

Upon receiving the donation, the Vice Chancellor of Makerere Professor Barnabas Nawangwe commended Huawei for the donation and them being an industry leader.

“Today Huawei Technologies donated equipment router and switches to support Huawei ICT Academy program. We are very excited about its potential in changing the IT landscape in Uganda and beyond. I am grateful to Huawei for this donation. I know them (Huawei) and I have been to their headquarters, they are a market leader and have heavily invested in research and development,”

Prof Barnabas Nawangwe

Dr. Mugasa Hatwib, the executive Director of NITA-U and also the guest of honor. expressed his passion for research and innovation and stressed that the donated equipment by Huawei shall aid the college of computing of Makerere in this role. He commended Huawei for their fulfillment and pledged constant support to the university. 

“Thanks to Huawei for this wonderful donation. This is part of the commitment that Huawei undertook to train 1000 students and equip their learning institutions.

Collective participation is how we shall digitize Uganda. I love research and innovation and I believe that this donation shall aid in the same,” he said.

Professor Tonny Oyana, the Principal College of Computing and Information science emphasized that the ICT Academy initiative are right within the strategic plan of Makerere that is being implemented between 2020 and 2030

According to Huawei’s Managing Director Mr. Gaofei, the donation comes as a fulfillment of the pledge Huawei made to Makerere of donating equipment to the University to aide in the hands-on study in the academy. 

“With this donation, we believe that we shall trigger exploration which lights the way forward. And furthermore we believe that this exploration begins with sharing wisdom, and exchange of ideas to open up exciting new possibilities in a digital world”, he added.

The Huawei ICT Academy course combines both theories and practical operations which range from Enterprise Networks such as Routing and Switching, Advanced Network and Network technology, information technology such as Storage, Cloud computing, and big data.

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. 

Once again, Huawei has ignited its 2019 round of the annual ICT competitions that treck Universities and selected IT centers in Uganda and all active Sub-Saharan Universities housing Huawei ICT academies.

With an early roll out to Makerere University earlier today, Huawei plans to upskill a section of IT students for a better future in both the employment market and Startup sphere with creative solutions for problem-solving through its ICT academy.

As a point to note, Huawei earlier this year flagged off its seeds for future finalists and granted lucky competitors with fully paid trips to China. This was a spicer to the 2018/19 Overall ICT competitions season that paved off the scene popping the 2019/10 into play.

The 2019/20 ICT Competitions season in Uganda has been unveiled from the Makerere Univerity Academy. Among the key points inked by the Huawei experts include a regional trip for all finalists to SouthAfrica for a hance to appear on the global scare together with bulk prizes including an opportunities to work in Huawei’s technical wing.

From tomorrow 27th August 2019, Huawei will continue its ICT competition journey with a roll out to Kyambogo University and all major Ugandan Universities where its ICT academy is an actively recognized wing.

How you can register for the Huawei ICT Competition

To register for the 2019/20 Huawei ICT Competitions Simply visit the Huawei Talent Portal. All Qualifying students will once again win regional trips to SouthAfrica for the regional round and China for the global scale round.

Henceforth, almost SubSaharan Africa states will feature in the mix for a regional shakedown and talent dip to China for the Global competition scale with the 2019 Competition riding on a “Connection Glory Future” theme.