The authorities of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC)and the management of Huawei Technologies S.A. Ghana on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish formal relationship between them to promote capacity building and exchange of best practices.

It is to enhance professional skills of GTUC and Huawei staff through training, staff interactions and exchange of experiences and information.

Dr Osei Darkwa, President of GTUC and Dr Robert Baffuor, Vice President of GTUC signed on behalf of the university, while Mr Daniel Guo, Deputy Managing Director of Huawei, and Ms Diana Ayen, Special Assistant to the Deputy Managing Director signed on behalf of Huawei.

Dr Darkwa said the agreement would focus on selecting students from GTUC for placement with Huawei Technologies to undertake their internship, and expose them to best practices in the field of telecommunications, ICT and related areas.

In addition, it would assist in building capacity among GTUC students in Huawei operations, involve Huawei in all major activities organised by GTUC as well as provide competitive pricing to GTUC in purchasing of equipment, communication, e-learning solutions and telecom service.

Dr Darkwa noted that advances in information and technologies were reducing through physical distance and bringing people from different parts of the world to collaborate in a seamless manner.

“In a globally connected world of the 21st Century, you need a workforce with a global theoretical and technical knowledge who have a deep understanding of issues within the industry,” he added.

Dr Darkwa explained that the collaboration would help to advance mutual interest in the rapidly evolving field of information technology, information service and telecommunications and position the University as a leading technology-enhanced education in Ghana and the sub-region and provide critically needed hands-on training to students.

Mr Guo said Ghana was fast becoming the preferred business and leisure destination in the sub-region and the expectation for excellence in the delivery of world class service could not be over-emphasised.

He said selected students for the internship programme would have the opportunity to learn from seasoned professionals in Huawei to build their confidence, broaden their horizon and help them acquire certain job skills exposure to be able to adjust quickly to the working environment after completing their education.

Mr Guo noted that the collaboration would allow both institutions to improve on the already established relationship which had helped to produce excellent students, supported various institutions and provided extremely skilled ICT workforce in Ghana.

Mr Ji Haojun, Chief of Political Section, Chinese Embassy in Accra said the agreement demonstrates Huawei’s strong sense of social responsibility and commitment to localisation and internationalisation.

He said government cooperation between Ghana and China had brought about bountiful fruits, but for faster development African countries needed not only capital and infrastructure, but human resource, management expertise and entrepreneurship.

Mr Ji said “For our common development and prosperity, we certainly need more company-to-company and people-to-people interaction.

Huawei Technologies is a leading global information and communication technology solutions provider in over 100 countries and has served 45 of the world’s top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world’s population.

Its vision is to enrich life through communication by leveraging experiences and expertise in the ICT sector and help bridge the digital divide by providing opportunities to enjoy broadband services, regardless of geographic location.