Huawei Jamaica has been nurturing Jamaican information communication technology (ICT) talent for the past five years through its Seeds for the Future programme.

On Friday (November 26), the telecom firm hosted a graduation attended by parliamentarian Juliet Holness and Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Tian Qi for 29 young students from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Technology (UTech).

The online programme, which lasted eight days, consisted of mandatory online courses, live stream sessions, ‘Tech4Good’ project and unlimited access to discovering Huawei, advanced technologies, trending businesses and cultural awareness.

Speaking about his experience, UWI student Shamar Jones said it was quite good.

“Overall, the Seeds for the Future is an amazing programme. It’s a fun interactive online experience that expanded my knowledge on the topic of ICT and how much of an impact Huawei has made in that sector,” Jones said.

“It also went beyond my expectations by allowing us to learn more than just ICT. Thanks for the programme. We’ve also been introduced to other content such as leadership business and traditional China. I’m a huge fan of China, their culture and their advancements in technology, so that was a win for me.”

The Seeds for the Future programme was a success with a 100 per cent graduation rate and all 29 students successfully completing and passing all the exams. They were each given a Programme Graduation Certificate from Huawei Technologies.

Ten Jamaican students (including three students from UWI and UTech) made outstanding performances in the Tech4Good Project.

The topic presented by this group of students was ‘Eco Clean Ja’, about an improvement of waste collection within the country to promote a sanitary environment.

The overall participating class for this year, consisted of a total of 112 students, from Ghana (58), Jamaica (29), Trinidad and Tobago (20) and Suriname (5).

Huawei continues to contribute to the development and opportunities to the winning team of each class. They will be invited to participate in the global competition at the end of the year. Through this project, Huawei’s aim is to increase social entrepreneurship, help our youths to understand current trends on how technology can assist with solving complex global challenges; build problem solving and leadership skills through team work and deepen personal mission and sense of social responsibility.

“It’s Huawei and Jamaica’s long-term objective to transport ICT, to build a bridge for ICT knowledge, regional ICT Talent Hub contribution and an Eco System construction. Huawei proposed a strategy to build a Jamaican ICT Talent Hub based on all the ICT Technology directions and the Jamaica’s industry development,” said Bo Zhou, Huawei CEO.

The event also saw the launch of the Jamaica ICT Talent Hub Initiative Programme and a signing of a memorandum of understanding to begin the establishment of a learning platform within the two universities, UTech and UWI, making Jamaica an ICT Talent Hub.

With the slogan ‘Cultivate ICT talents and build industry connections’, Huawei plans to identify, empower and recruit talents with a vision to develop Jamaica as an ICT talent centre of the Caribbean region.

“Huawei will cooperate with the Jamaican Government to build an ICT academy with UWI and UTech. We will provide the ICT equipment, course resources and platform resources and provide scholarships for UWI and UTech students to the tune of $4 million each year,” Bo said.

“Internship opportunities will be provided for students of Jamaica, the ICT Talent Centre, with opportunities to learn ICT in China, provide ICT industry development and technological trend literacy improvement courses for technical elites, national ICT strategic literacy promotion courses for relevant senior government officials and industry experts. All this with the intention to reform the university ICT curriculum system.”

The Jamaica ICT Talent Center will produce far-reaching value and significance for universities, colleges that provide unique ICT courses to students, Access to the latest technology ICT learning resources, extensive industry standard training and certification for teachers, established industry connections, knowledge sharing and established partnerships with ICT companies.