NAITA-Huawei ICT Academy opens; aims skilling over 300 telco engineers annually

Huawei Sri Lanka Director Public Affairs – Christophe Lee, Vice President – Indika De Zoysa, Head of Enterprise Business Ricardo Xiao Hua, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Liang Yi, Education Minister G.L. Peiris, State Minister Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Chairman - Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) Eng. Udeni Wickramasinghe and NAITA Chairman – Tharanga Gamlath at the NAITA-Huawei ICT Academy opening

Minister of Education - Prof. G.L. Peiris (Middle), the State Minister Dr. Seetha Arambepola (Extreme left), NAITA Chairman - Tharanga Gamlath (Second from left), Huawei Sri Lanka CEO, Liang Yi (Extreme Right) opening the NAITA Huawei ICT Academy 

National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) in collaboration with ICT solutions provider Huawei, recently announced opening of NAITA-Huawei ICT Academy for Vocational Training, with presence of Minister of Education - Prof. G.L. Peiris, State Minister of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research and Innovation – Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Chairman NAITA – Tharanga Gamlath, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO, Liang Yi and other officials. 

The initiative aims skilling 300 plus passionate youth annually, with knowledge and practice as on-site telecom engineers. The initiative was implemented by the recently inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Huawei and NAITA to contribute and enhance vocational education and training for the youth in the Telecommunication sector with hardware installation skills.

Speaking at the opening ceremony Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris said, “Education is the foundation for a Life fulfilled and satisfied. Our guiding strength is our human resources and it is the principal asset of Sri Lanka, the calibre of our human resources. 

It is commendable that Huawei is helping us very vigorously and actively to upgrade skills of youth that we have, the quality of which will determine the future of this island. I believe this is a very productive partnership between NAITA and Huawei”.

He further highlighted that the Government of Sri Lanka under the patronage of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has identified that the education to match the economic priorities, in which education will be developed in the areas of vocational training in parallel with university education to build productive and a suitable workforce, with skills and aptitudes that could match the professional demand required by industry sector.

Addressing the occasion, the State Minister of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research and Innovation – Dr. Seetha Arambepola went on to say that in future Sri Lanka is looking forward to actively work directly with private sector to improve the vocational and professional development of the youth talents in the country. 

“I would like to pay my gratitude to Huawei and also clearly appreciate your extended support given to NAITA and hope we can work together in future to enrich our youth with knowledge and technology,” State Minister Dr.Seetha Arambepola said.  

“In today’s world vocational talent has more demand in industry and therefore it is a must to develop vocational talent among the youth. We expect our NAITA- Huawei academy to be the centre of ICT talent and vocational development in Sri Lanka with our target on upskilling over 300 youth annually, with knowledge and practice of ICT technologies we are thankful to partner with Huawei in this programme in our effort to enable our youth with cutting edge technologies” Tharanga Gamlath, Chairman of NAITA said.

ICT talents are one of the key factors driving the digital economy. In Sri Lanka, Huawei has been working closely with various stakeholders to develop ICT talent. 

“Emerging technologies like 5G, IoT, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence will soon see large-scale commercial applications. A Long-term strategy that includes resource sharing, complementary advantages, and joint development between universities, vocational training institutes and enterprises is needed to efficiently match the talent supply with the demand and this academy will play that role. 

We believe this programme will cultivate a larger number of youth talents in the years to come” Huawei Sri Lanka CEO, Liang Yi said.