Huawei Kenya and their partners recently organized an online job fair as they seek to hire more than 40 professional ICT workers. Despite the difficult economic environment, Huawei continues to invest in local talent through training programs, internships, and full-time hires.
During this difficult period, the country is more dependent on ICT than ever before, but is in a relatively good position thanks to the investments and progress in the last 10-20 years by the government, private sector and other stakeholders. Over 85% of citizens are covered by a 3G network and able to access multiple government services online whilst also doing business, transacting money, getting health information online and much more. ICT has proven to be of the utmost importance in combating the pandemic.
Existing infrastructure, online services and e-government requires talent to build, maintain and support them whilst also advancing new developments so Kenya can use technology to manage the pandemic, recover faster after the pandemic, and to speed-up the country’s long-term growth.
Opening the online job fair, Jerome Ochieng, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs noted the success of past investments in talent and acknowledged the contribution of Huawei in enabling the growth of the sector and creation of jobs: “I thank our partners in the private sector, including Huawei, who have supported this and other programs such as Seeds for the Future and the Ajira Digital Program which has trained over 100,000 youth.
Will Meng, Deputy CEO of Huawei Kenya said in his remarks that: “We realized a long time ago that the key for our success, and the key to Kenya’s success, would be in education and talent. We set-up our East Africa Training Center back in 2008 which has trained more than 5,000 people. We have hired thousands of local people during that time and on average 2,000 Kenyans are working on Huawei projects directly, or indirectly, at any time. We have provided hundreds of internships through Seeds for the Future program, trained 130 lecturers and over 2,500 students through the ICT Academy program.”
Hundreds of students have benefitted from these programs. Over 100 students conducted interviews today with Huawei Kenya and their partners recruiting 40 students into the ICT workforce. All University students that graduated in the past year were eligible to take part. The positions included IP/IT Solution Engineers for the Enterprise Business division, Software Service Engineers as well as Technical Solution Engineers.
In his concluding remarks, PS Jerome Ochieng noted that “As many companies are letting people go due to the adverse effects of Covid-19 on business and the economy, the Huawei online job fair is a testament that this industry is growing and job opportunities are available .”
As the participants learned more about the job opportunities and application process, Will Meng concluded the online event telling the applicants that: “Huawei remains committed to not only providing that technology but training and hiring the best talent. We will continue to invest in talent. We want to train and hire more local staff, and that is why today we have organized this online job fair. I encourage you to take Huawei certifications and internships, apply for our positions.”
