Over 240 university students have benefited from 6 days training on 5G, enabling them to prepare the country to take advantage of this new transformative technology.
5G has been underscored as pivotal in both creating jobs and creating economic output and this has seen many countries and economic blocks around the world launch 5G strategies.
It has the ability to rapidly roll-out high-speed connectivity for homes, businesses, schools and hospitals while enable step-changes in industrial productivity in sectors such as manufacturing and transport.
It also creates opportunities for entirely new business models and services in industries such as tourism, entertainment, gaming and broadcasting; and it does all this with lower carbon emissions per MB of data.
This year has seen 5G rolled out in over 80 networks globally reaching 70 million subscribers already, twice as fast as 4G achieved. 5G is able to handle many more connections at much faster speeds, and more securely.
The training by Huawei saw students drawn from 13 Kenyan Universities including University of Nairobi, JKUAT, Strathmore and Zetech University among others.
A statement from Huawei affirmed that they identified a need to create a course to give students in Kenya the tools to understand and navigate this technology. The students conducted a two-hour interactive course, 90 minutes of lectures and 30 minutes of Q&A each day with a different group. The course has greatly assisted the students in understanding 5G technology, from the perspective of technology, standards, regulation, policy, economy, society and environment.
Students testimonials
The trainer for the course was Huawei global specialist Ding Yajie. The topics covered included 5G architecture, different deployment scenarios, application uses and challenges.
“The Huawei 5G Training was a really great course and presented by Ding Yajie in an enthusiastic way. The course helped to compound the knowledge I have about networking in general and in wireless technology. The videos used in the training really made it interesting and gave the training a better look and understanding, in that, for example, when talking about intelligent connected cars, it is one thing to just have some slides on the same but it’s on a whole new level having a video demonstrating how the same can be done and helps to kind of visualize the same,” remarked Evans Kiprotich a 3rd year Bsc. Telecommunications and Engineering student at JKUAT.
The courses were conducted in two parts 5G Technology and Trends; and 5G Use Cases and Business Models.
Ding Yajie observed that training the group of University students from Kenya this week has been a pleasure as they have been thoroughly engaged and eager to delve deeply into the understanding of 5G.
Sylvia Jebet Kipkemoi a 3rd year Bsc. Telecommunications and Engineering student at JKUAT said the 5G Huawei Training session was a very informative and eye-opening session. “As far as I was concerned, I only knew 5G as the next level after the LTE with no further details. But the session clarified a lot on the 5G deployment and evolution, as well as its application and generally how it works. The models and statistics illustrating the comparison of 5G with LTE (4G) and 3G also really put into perspective just how the 5G platform is superior and stronger. Now that I have the facts on 5G, I must say, I am quite eager to use it and explore more“.
Mr. Samuel Kinuthia Head Centre for Professional Certifications at Zetech University noted that some of the benefits of 5G to institutions of higher learning will be; Immersive Lessons with Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), smart classrooms, assistance of students with special needs, flexible learning, among others.
On his part, Dr. Michael W. Kimwele, Director School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) said the training goes a long way in sharpening student’s skills and making them competitive. “The skills gained in the training will contribute towards their professional growth both in campus and in the work environment. I expect the trainees to be good advocates of 5G technology. They should be able to create solutions, in addition to becoming Huawei ambassadors”.
The training is part of Huawei’s efforts in online learning and training. Earlier this month, they organized an online job fair for students to take up internships and permanent jobs with the company.
