China’s Huawei has partnered with government to train 6 000 South African postgraduate ICT students and technology practitioners in 5G and “fourth Industrial Revolution” technologies, the company said on Thursday.

Huawei South Africa and the department of communications & digital technologies plan to launch free online and on-site training in 5G and 4IR technologies. It made the announcement at the annual Seeds for the Future send-off ceremony, which sees 10 university students from various South African institutions departing on a study trip to China.

At last year’s event, Huawei and the department committed themselves to building an “ICT talent ecosystem” to support “South Africa’s digital transformation”.

“The Seeds for the Future programme is aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice and to develop local ICT talent through knowledge transfer and hands-on experience,” Huawei said in a statement.

“We recently launched a free 5G training course at University of Pretoria, Wits and University of Johannesburg, and plan to take that to more institutions,” the company said. “We are now partnering with the department of communications & digital technologies to deliver a 5G and 4IR online training platform with an accredited certification for 5 000 ICT students and professionals in South Africa. We aim to train a further thousand students in our on-site programme.” — © 2019 NewsCentral Media