Huawei launches its digital skills development program: LEAP. The goal is to help advance the ICT skills of more than 100,000 people in the Sub-Saharan Africa region within three years.
Promoting digital literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa
LEAP, an acronym for Leadership, Employability, Advancement and Possibility, is a program launched by Huawei that aims to create strong digital leadership and a skilled ICT workforce. By launching this project, the Chinese giant hopes to build a pool of digital talent, as well as promote digital literacy among citizens of sub-Saharan Africa. The program includes a wide range of activities from ICT training and certification courses, to government digital capacity building and ICT skills competitions.
Developing leaders in ICT
At the launch of the project, Huawei’s president in Southern Africa, Leo Chen, stressed the importance of ICT skills transfer and talent development within the firm.
« Digital is deeply rooted in the people because it is deployed by the people and for the people. When the roots are deep, there is no need to fear the wind. Through the LEAP program, we are striving to develop more young leaders in ICT who will be able to explore more opportunities for themselves, their families, their communities and ultimately their nations “, he commented.
Already, over the past two decades, Huawei has helped advance the ICT skills of more than 80,000 people in the African region. In doing so, the company has helped to increase the employability of young people and close the gender gap in the ICT industry. Huawei itself is an employer of choice in the region. In addition, its subsidiaries in 9 sub-Saharan African countries have obtained the Top Employer label in 2021.
The LEAP program will be rolled out based on the company’s investment in the region and will see more than 1,200 instructors conduct 3,000 ICT courses. It will also fund a number of facilities, including training centers, equipment installation bases, innovation hubs, mirror labs and ICT academies. Currently, Huawei has ICT academies in over 300 universities and colleges in the region.
Training for Mauritians
The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred digital adoption across Africa. And of course, this has resulted in a huge increase in the demand for digital skills and talent. In fact, according to a World Bank study on digital skills in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. This makes programs like LEAP even more critical.
As for Mauritius, Huawei Technologies said that a new class of students benefits since April 4, 2022 of the training Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA) Cloud Computing at the University of Mauritius (UoM). This is a training course made available under the program Huawei’s DigiTalent ICT Cultivation launched in 2021. Nearly 1,000 Mauritian students will benefit from this program each year from 2021 to 2023. Already, 300 Mauritian beneficiaries have obtained their HCIA certifications, and today, 25 local trainers are accredited by Huawei and seven local universities are participating in the program.
