Three SA students travel to China to pit their brains against the best of the best

Three of the best ICT students in South Africa were flown to China this week to highlight the need for a global workforce fit for a connected world.

The students will pit their skills and knowledge against the best teams from around the world during a two-day ICT laboratory challenge. The team undertook a gruelling selection process to test their knowledge of IP and IT subjects, which was also entered by 7,500 ICT students around the world.

Huawei, best known for its mobile phones hosted 32 teams including six overseas teams, from across the globe at the inaugural event at its Shenzhen HQ, including representatives from Western Europe, Australia, Pakistan, and Russia.

The South Africa delegation will participate in an eight-hour practical challenge that rigorously tests their knowledge of routers, switching, security, WLAN, plus cloud, storage, and Big Data. The top three teams will be announced at the end, along with six of the best mentors.

The students are member of the Huawei ICT Academy, a worldwide not-for-profit programme that encourages the next generation of ICT professionals for a better connected world.

South Africa faces a crisis in digital skills, and is without sufficient numbers of software engineers to build a digital economy(1).

Lintuo Wu, Huawei ICT Academy director, said: “The Huawei ICT Academy hopes to influence the upskilling of South Africa’s ICT workforce through educational opportunities and the creation of a better global ICT talent ecosystem.”

Pallavi Malhotra, Huawei ICT Academy manager, said: “More and more university students, and those wanting to embark on an ICT career realise they need the full suite of academic knowledge and practical know-how to enter the current ICT workplace. Huawei ICT Academy qualifications provide the foundations, from routers or switching, to cloud computing, or security, to help students find those roles. We can also provide a career path for ICT professionals right up to certification, to enable them to aim for middle to senior level positions.”

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