Huawei contest bridges talent-industry gap
AS a way to address the gap between talent and requirements in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, the Huawei ICT Competition, introduced last year under the Huawei ICT Academy, aims to prepare varsity students to join the workforce in a digitally-progressing world.
Themed “Connection, Glory, Future”, six winners have qualified for the final global leg of the competition to take place in Shenzhen, China, on May 25 to 26.
The South-Pacific regional finals saw 12 teams from top universities in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines competing for two spots in the global leg.
Telkom University (Tel-U) from Indonesia and Nanyang Polytechnic Singapore earned a spot to compete for the region. At the awards ceremony recently in Universiti Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching presented the prizes to all winners for the regional finals.
Speaking at the ceremony, Teo commended Huawei Malaysia for bringing the best young minds of the region under one roof in Malaysia.
“Digital transformation is at the forefront of the region, and Malaysia is no different. It is one of the key priorities for us in realising our goal of becoming a high-income nation and uplifting our economic prosperity.
“The ICT industry, however, is a challenging one. We need to ensure that today’s youth are (well) prepared and equipped to face the challenges ahead.
“Collaboration between universities and industries is necessary for skills development and adoption of knowledge,” she said.
She added that Malaysia and the rest of the region needed quality work-ready graduates to cater to the needs of the industry.
Present at the ceremony were Huawei Technologies Malaysia chief executive officer Michael Yuan, UM Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Abdul Rahim Hashim and Huawei Authorised Learning Partner (HALP) certified system instructor Yap Chee Yuen.
Yuan said: “As a leading global ICT leader, we understand the important role education can play in nation building. Rapid economic and social changes are creating uncertainty and complexity in the society we live in.
“To prepare the youth to deal with the present situation needs, they need to develop analytical and critical thinking, skills and attitude that will make them more flexible and innovative to deal with changes at the national- and global-levels.
For the past months, students from the SouthPacific region had been battling it out in vigorous qualifying rounds before reaching the regional level.
The competition was divided into two categories ― Network and Cloud Tracks. Under the Network Track, the winning teams were from UM, Tel U and Institut Teknologi Bandung of Indonesia. The Cloud Track winning team was from Nanyang Polytechnic Singapore.
The participating universities from Malaysia were UM, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Taylor’s University.