As the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry transforms, in an effort to make progress in the new era treating talent as the industry’s most important resource, Huawei Sri Lanka recently opened the Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab in collaboration with University of Moratuwa (UoM). The official opening ceremony of Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab was held at the University of Moratuwa with the participation of Secretary to the Ministry of Education Prof. Kapila Perera, Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa Prof. N. D. Gunawardena, CEO of Huawei Sri Lanka Liang Yi with other UoM and Huawei officials.
This will be the largest Huawei ICT Academy and Innovation Lab in the country, themed on “Cultivating a Talent Ecosystem for Digitally Inclusive Sri Lanka” contributing to digital ecosystem and digital transformation, as digital talent cultivation has become a key for unleashing social energy and hope.
The aim of the Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab is to train individuals in real environment using Huawei equipment to acquire high level Huawei Certifications, support university research programs providing the cutting edge technology and platforms and inspire Innovations by conducting Industry and university collaborative projects and research.
Speaking at the event, Secretary to the Ministry of Education Prof. Kapila Perera said “Education and Talent development is a universal need. So our government has prioritized and envisions to build a technology based society and to achieve the same, ICT and Digital talent with global recognition and internationally acclaimed qualifications is a must. Therefore I believe this initiative of University of Moratuwa and Huawei will immensely support Sri Lanka’s vision of becoming a Smart Nation.”
“We being the leading technological university of Sri Lanka, University of Moratuwa has educated talented youth from diverse backgrounds and transformed them to high-quality professionals, academics and leaders over the years. Part of our vision is to steer the University to be responsive and adaptive in making Sri Lanka a knowledge-based economy. This Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab will go beyond knowledge generation to apply knowledge and skills to build future talent required to meet ICT talent demand and we are indeed glad to have Huawei contributing to establish this academy that will largely bridge the digital talent in the country” Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa Prof. N. D. Gunawardena said.
“With this initiative we are extending our ICT talent cultivation initiative to a larger scale, titled Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab. We are focusing on key 3 domains: Public awareness, ICT Vocational Training and Joint innovation with Sri Lankan universities, to enhance knowledge transfer, promote a greater understanding and interest in the telecommunications sector, also to improve and encourage regional building and participation in the digital community” CEO of Huawei Sri Lanka Liang Yi said.
He further added that this initiative will be part of Huawei’s continuous substantial ICT talent cultivation initiative to develop over 10,000 ICT talent over the next 5 years in Sri Lanka in parallel with company’s Asia Pacific regional initiative to develop ICT talent in the region.
Based on Huawei’s technical accumulation, talent cultivation experience, and industry resources in the ICT industry over the past 30 years, the Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab project is one of the major initiatives by Huawei to enhance the students’ ICT knowledge. Huawei provides a comprehensive solution that covers the entire talent development process from course development, trainer enablement, to lab environment setup, and from talent certification, competition, to employment under this programme.
This further fulfills last year’s Huawei’s cooperation and signed MoU with University of Moratuwa to establish a joint innovation laboratory and ICT Academy, aiming to develop high-quality information and communication technology talent and skills among youth generations to meet the ever changing future talent demands and challenges of the industry. As the intiative further expand this joint innovation lab – the Huawei ICT Academy Innovation Lab will produce over 250 students in ICT technologies annually and also to conduct Industrial Research programs using the Platforms.