Today, at the Huawei Innovation and Experience Centre in Sandton, Huawei and its channel partners hosted a certification award ceremony as well as interview sessions for Huawei Authorised Information and Network Academy (HAINA) graduates for the second time in one year. Graduates consisted of senior students from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) as well as the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

The HAINA initiative is a global ICT technology education program that facilitates university-enterprise partnership. The program aims to lead ICT development, build the future of the ICT industry, and create a sound personnel ecosystem by providing ICT education worldwide. The joint academy established with TUT in 2015, became the first HAINA installation in the Southern Africa region.

As Huawei presented HCNA-Router and Switch certificates to nineteen HAINA-trained graduates from TUT and UJ, interviews were also hosted in collaboration with Huawei’s channel partners Altron, Reflex, Datacentrix and StorTech, for the students to be given first priority for internships and employment opportunities.

“The Southern Africa region is a vital area of growth for the HAINA program. Huawei is committed in providing our global leading expertise in local ICT personnel cultivation, to help accelerate the development of educational tools and promote the development of the local ICT technical workforce. As such, we would like to congratulate the graduates on their momentous milestone,” says Maison Mei, Business Service Director of Huawei Enterprise South Africa.

Huawei is committed to building an ICT talent ecosystem. We are working with over 300 universities around the world to build Huawei ICT academies, and have signed contracts with over 100 training partners. Huawei's ICT technical certification program is the industry's only certification that covers all technical fields. Over 80,000 engineers have received this certification. There are now over 5,000 Huawei Certified Internetwork Experts (HCIEs), the highest-level technical certification offered by Huawei.

In South Africa, Huawei is already collaborating extensively with the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Johannesburg (UJ), as well as University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) to further Huawei certifications in support of a subsequent career in the ICT industry. Going forward, Huawei will hold higher education development summit forums and forge ICT personnel alliances to further drive the healthy, sustainable and efficient development of the ICT personnel ecosystem.