The Durban University of Technology’s Huawei ICT Academy was amongst some of the high-flying contestants at the Huawei South Africa ICT Talent Development Awards, receiving recognition for the strides the academy has made in the advancement of ICT.

In an awards ceremony pitting the top performing academic institutions in the ICT sector, the DUT Huawei ICT Academy held its own and emerged as the proud recipient of three awards at the Huawei South Africa ICT Talent Development Awards held in Johannesburg on the 28th of July, in deserved recognition of the excellence our academy’s continued growth in the ICT sector.

The Huawei ICT Academy program has 70 academics and over 10 500 students and lecturers participating in the Huawei ICT certification training across South Africa’s nine provinces.

Delivering his address at the awards ceremony, Mr. Wei Jianzhou, Senior Manager in the Public Relations Department at Huawei, called for careful attention to be paid to the rapid pace at which ICT technologies were developing.

He highlighted that there was currently a gap between the demand of digital skills in the ICT industry and the outcomes of talent development programs.

“This has been proven in the job market. One of the causes is that academic curriculum needs constant review to keep pace with the development of the ICT industry and job market demand.

“The Huawei ICT Academy is a supplementary program to close the said gap. We hope to work towards enriching the ICT education curriculum with Huawei ICT training courses to benefit the young ICT pioneers,” Mr. Jianzhou remarked.

Furthermore, he emphasized that ICT skills development was never a solo dance and that it was for this reason that a long-term strategy that includes resource sharing, complementary advantages, and joint development between government, educational institutions, and the ICT industry, was needed to meet the demand of digital skills in South Africa.

“The faster we act, the faster our young generation will benefit,” Mr. Jianzhou insisted.

Since the establishment of the DUT’s partnership with the Chinese technology behemoth in 2020, the University growth in the ICT sector has been substantial, culminating into the incredible three podium finishes attained at the esteemed Huawei South Africa ICT Talent Development Awards.

The support and training from Huawei Technologies saw the DUT walk away with second place in the Most Active ICT Academy category out of nine competing academic institutions.

DUT’s, Zime Nxumalo, an incubatee of the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, picked up second place in the Most Active Huawei Ambassadors category, a highly contested field that had 15 Huawei Ambassadors vying for top honours.

The University’s excellent showing at the awards ceremony also saw Huawei DUT instructor Eloge Ngoie come in third position in the category for the Most Active ICT Academy Instructors in a field with nine contestants. 

The success at the awards ceremony was a feather in the cap for the University ,and a stamp of approval, for the University’s continued effort and commitment to put into practice its ENVISION2030 objectives of providing curricula that stimulate creativity and innovation to generate new knowledge and solutions. 

Thabile Ndaba, Business Support Coordinator at innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Huawei DUT Administrator, described the DUT Huawei ICT Academy as an industry-academy cooperation project.

Ndaba was a guest speaker at the prestigious awards ceremony and hailed the programme’s impact and the response of a mixture of DUT students and members of the community to it, with 1700 people having been part of the programme since its inception.

“It imparts Huawei ICT technology and product knowledge to university students and the community encourages them to become Huawei-certified and cultivates ICT talent for global industry chains.

“It provides diverse courses and flexible teaching methods. There are courses on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), Routing/Switching, Security, and Storage,” Ndaba explained.

The University’s bilateral relationship with Huawei was formed in 2020, which saw trainers being taken under training before the University began actively participating in the programme in 2021.

What was then a fledgling relationship has grown into a well-developed alliance that currently has 851 students registered on the DUT Huawei ICT Academy’s books, with 754 of them being active participants in the programme.

“12 classes have been opened through the efforts of the ambassadors that play a crucial role in encouraging students to engage with Huawei technology, guiding them towards obtaining certifications that validate their skills and knowledge in this field,” Ndaba relayed.

Explaining the significance of the strategic partnership between Huawei and DUT, through the DUT Huawei ICT Academy, Ndaba said that it was critical in equipping the students with the requisite skill set in the ICT space so that they can gain access to more opportunities in the industry.

“This programme is not just limited to IT students only; it is open to every student in the whole university and the wider community. This programme is bringing more opportunities to our students in terms of bursaries, in service training and graduate programmes,” Ndaba said.

She said that the recognition received at the awards by the DUT Huawei Academy would help open more doors for the University in attracting more IT driven stakeholders to invest more in the University.

“Here in the province of KwaZulu-Natal we are the only university that is really driving this ICT agenda and we’re doing really well. I know that other universities have started working on ICT, but we are leading the way,” Ndaba said.

📸Pictured: Huawei SA ICT Awards attendees outside the Huawei Innovation Centre

📸Pictured: DUT’s, Zime Nxumalo, an incubatee of the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Thabile Ndaba, Business Support Coordinator at innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Huawei DUT Administrator