Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd. joined hands with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), the Ministry of Labour (MOL), and a network of Thai universities and enterprises at the recent “Thailand Digital Talent Summit and Job Fair: Building Talent Hub for a Digital, Intelligent, and Green Thailand”. The summit successfully gathered over 200 participants from across government, academia, and industries, marking a significant milestone in cultivating digital talents and creating more value-added job opportunities for Thailand on its journey towards becoming a digital economic hub of ASEAN.
Mr. David Li, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd., introduced Huawei’s comprehensive approach and progress in developing digital talents: “Through the Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand) platform, our efforts focus on 4 critical areas: Business School (Leader) to foster digital leadership for organization executives; Technical School (Creator) to sharpen the knowledge and hands-on abilities of university students, SMEs, and developers; Engineering School (Practitioner) that offers practical skills for vocational workers; and Digital Inclusion (User) initiatives to provide equal access to digital learning for disadvantaged groups.”
He added that to date, Huawei has collaborated with various partners to develop more than 96,000 digital talents, including 72,000 ICT professionals, 8,000 advanced cloud and AI developers, 2,000 green engineers, 5,000 cybersecurity personnel, and 3,500 SMEs and startups, as well as provided free training for 6,000 rural students and residents. Nationwide, Huawei has signed ICT Academy cooperation agreements with 42 Thai leading universities.
At the Thailand Digital Summit, Ms. Supamas Isarabhakdi, Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, said of the partnership: “As a representative for MHESI, I would like to thank Huawei for this important partnership on digital knowledge in order to foster more digital talents in Thailand. MHESI has an important mission to build manpower that meets the needs of the nation’s development, especially for digital technology, which has become the heart and foundation of all development in every dimension in today’s world. We are ready to join forces with Huawei to drive digital innovation and research policies that are specifically designed for incubating qualified personnel. In addition, we will support policy that promotes production and human resource development in the 21st Century.”
Mrs. Jirawan Sudsoonthorn, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Skill Development, also said: “We are honored and grateful to be able to work with Huawei, a global leader in digital and intelligent technology, to foster more digital talents that better suit the needs of industries across the country. We will answer the demand and need for the upskilling and reskilling of Thailand’s workforce together, fostering collaboration between education and industry, and developing essential workforce skills for the future of digital industry.”
During the summit, Huawei announced new strategic partnerships with multiple stakeholders that will ensure the continued nurturing of the local digital talent ecosystem:
- Government and policy impacts: Together with MHESI and MOL, the three parties have set the goal of co-training 10,000 ICT professionals, 5,000 Cloud AI developers, and 2,000 green engineers by 2025, collaborating with more than 20 universities to offer Huawei digital and cloud developer courses.
- Academia knowledge sharing: Leading universities, including Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Khon Kaen University, and Mahidol University, launched a new cooperation initiative with Huawei to transfer experience in educational transformation and develop a future-ready workforce.
- Student scholarships: To encourage more youths to enter the ICT industry, Huawei announced the ICT Competition Scholarship for 2023-2024, awarding 9 winning teams from 3 tracks (network, cloud, and computing) with rewards exceeding 1.4 million THB in total.
- Industry engagement and job creation: Together with 15 partners in enterprise, cloud, green energy, and human resources, Huawei hosted a job fair, matching students with Huawei training or certifications for job opportunities in various fields, including in site installations, business, and software development.
Huawei has been collaborating with policymakers and partners across various projects to cultivate a total of 100,000 talents by 2025. For example, Huawei Thailand worked with the National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) to set up a cybersecurity competition for 4,000 participants; collaborated with the National Innovation Agency (NIA) to train 160 Thai SMEs in 5G/SmartCity/AI Robotics Immersive technologies; set up various ICT Competition events covering cloud, IP, and cyber security since 2015; awarded one million THB in scholarships in 2023; and established the Digital Bus CSR project for rural students in 14 provinces.
Deeply rooted in Thailand for 25 years, Huawei is strongly committed to Thailand’s digital strategy in line with its mission of ‘Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand’. With the Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand) platform and customized training resources, Huawei will keep contributing towards creating a closed-loop ecosystem that integrates training, Huawei certifications, partner recruitment, and applications. By fostering a collaborative environment where ideas and innovations can be translated into the classroom and then into real-world applications, Huawei will continue to power a digital, intelligent and green Thailand.