Huawei Technologies, Ghana, yesterday, held the 2nd Edition of its National Ambassadors Awards Ceremony to reward over 30 Campus Ambassadors and Instructors who have worked effortlessly in the training of more university students in Huawei Professional Certification courses in ICT for an easy career path.

In the first half of 2021 (i.e. January to June 2021), Huawei with the help of student ambassadors and instructors from partner universities across the various regions in Ghana, has successfully trained over 1,500 students and certified 800 in HCIA (Huawei Certified ICT Associate) Routing and Switching and HCIA-Security.

Speaking at the virtual awards ceremony, the Deputy Managing Director at Huawei Ghana, Mr. Kweku Essuman Quansah congratulated all award winners for their hard work and dedication towards the training of students in ICT for the growth of Ghana’s ICT talent pool.

According to him, the awards is to celebrate excellent instructors and ambassadors who have contributed their quota in ensuring that Huawei’s commitment to the President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akufo Addo, to train 10,000 Ghanaians through the Huawei ICT Talent (HIT) Program for Ghana over the next 3years is achieved.

Mr. Quansah applauded the University of Ghana (UG) for being the first Huawei Authorized Academy to roll out HCIA-Security as a certification course in Ghana which is also the first of its kind in the country. He encouraged ambassadors and instructors to continue working with Huawei, on the path they have chosen, to develop more talents in ICT for a better Ghana.

The Director General for the Commission of Technical and Vocational Training, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah in his address during the ceremony commended Huawei for making ICT education its focus. He indicated that with the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), digitization is very critical and ICT has to be embedded in every discipline from Social Sciences and Arts to Engineering and everything that has got to do with skills development to maximize outcome.

The Director congratulated all instructors and student ambassadors for the great work in acquiring more skills to train other students. He mentioned that, at the heart of every skills training is the role of the instructor which can’t be underestimated. He encouraged the students and instructors to work hard and come up with new solutions and services for the development of the country.

According to him, the Council is looking forward to having a strong partnership with Huawei to extend the initiative beyond what is happening now to cover the entire nation and make it an embedded system in the country. He further revealed the Commission is looking forward to making Huawei its major partner in the upcoming WorldSkills Competition.

Senior Lecturer of University of Ghana Mr. Julius Ludu who emerged as the Overall Best Instructor for the first Half Year of 2021, expressed his gratitude to Huawei for bringing the country’s ICT sector to the limelight. According to him, Huawei’s ICT Talent Training program has helped develop the ICT skills of the citizenry, especially at tertiary institutions.

“With the influx of mobile phones and the resulting increase in data services and usage, it is critical that the information generated is safeguarded. I believe that adding security as a course to the curriculum is helping students have a better understanding of the various aspects of security and prepare them for the fast-evolving profession. I believe it would also prepare our graduates for positions such as Information & Cyber Security Consultant, Systems and Networks Security Engineers, IT Security and Governance Officers, and Information Security Analysts.” He said.

He mentioned that, UG has over the years trained over 1,000 students in professional courses and is looking forward to increasing the number to 2,000 as faculty members of the Computer Science Department, led by Dr. Jamal-Deen Abdulai, believe in providing students with the required skills and capabilities to help them succeed as they navigate beyond the borders of the University.

The Head of Computer Science Department, Koforidua Technical University (KTU), Dr. Boakye Agyemang during the awards mentioned that, as required by GTEC [Ghana Tertiary Education Commission], COTVET [Council For Technical and Vocational Educational Training] and other regulatory bodies of technical and vocational institutions, the Huawei HIT program has helped offer hands on training to over 600 students from KTU of which 100+ have been certified this half year.

He indicated that, KTU is looking forward to integrating Huawei ICT Academy programs into their main curriculum as the course has given their students more exposure and the school this year intends to introduce a BSC program in Artificial Intelligence and partner with Huawei on other courses like Routing and Switching, Security, Storage and Datacom.

Dr. William Agangiba, the Head of the Computer Science Department at UMAT (University of Mines and Technology) mentioned that this year students from UMAT are enthused about Huawei as many are willing to take part in the ongoing Huawei ICT Competition at their school.

He said, the school will continue to nurture their students to do well in the Huawei Competition and take part in other Huawei related initiatives. He encouraged the ambassadors and students to keep working hard as the initiative put in place by Huawei is a good one.