Huawei Switzerland launches a new programme to promote ICT education in Switzerland
Berne, 2nd April 2014 – Huawei Switzerland, a subsidiary of Huawei Technologies, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has launched a student programme to promote the ICT education in Switzerland.
In order to promote young talents development and ICT education, Huawei has set up an undergraduate student programme and launched its first edition one month ago in Switzerland, under the name of Global Information and Communication Technology Module. Twelve selected students from four Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences of different language regions (FHNW Northwestern Switzerland, HSLU Lucerne, HES-SO Geneva and FHS St. Gallen) have been given a 10-days training opportunity in Huawei headquarters in China. This is part of the initiative to promote education and the practical experience in ICT, which Huawei is leading in most of the European countries, including UK, Germany and France.
To ensure the training and the activities planned by Huawei for the students match the requirements of the curriculum and the expectations from the teachers, Huawei closely cooperated with prof. Thomas Schmitt from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). This resulted in an interesting programme for the students allowing them to learn more about ICT, get experience on field in a global company as well as a cultural exchange.
During their stay the students attended lectures about industry trends, product solutions, had workshops in labs with Huawei experts, had discussions with executives, visited production plants, R&D centers and worked on a project that they presented at the beginning of March. Upon validation of the project by the Universities, the students will get 3 ECTS credits in the module «Global Information and Communication Technology ».
"Research and innovation are essential elements for the development of a country like Switzerland, it is therefore very important to create the conditions so that young students can complement their curriculum with practical experiences in the industry. One of our commitments is to make our students internationally competitive and the initiative launched by Huawei is excellent as it offers a practical training in China. I’m especially happy that four universities joined the program for the first edition." said Thomas Schmitt, Professor of the School of Engineering at FHNW.
The experience was rated as very positive from a student of FHNW Lukas Keller: “This training opportunity offered by my University and financed by Huawei was great and important for my professional growth. During these 10 days I have learnt a lot about the new technologies, the future trends and a global company like Huawei. I was truly impressed. Moreover I got this incredible chance to visit China and get closer to this new culture I didn’t know.”
"Huawei focuses on the promotion of ICT education to locally recruit professional resources and play an active role in Switzerland’s economic growth. We believe that educating young ICT talents is the way to go and we will continue to collaborate with other Swiss Universities. This first edition of the ICT Infrastructure Competence Module was very successful and Huawei committed to repeat the operation every year to create concrete opportunities for meetings between the worlds of education and business" said Felix Kamer, Managing Director Huawei Switzerland.