Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay
As technology continues to become key to operations in just about every sector, it is crucial that everyone who is in a work-space of some sort is knowledgeable about the same. And this includes civil servants who are pretty much the engine of Government. This is more-so during the COVID-19 pandemic when curfews and movement restrictions have forced people to mostly work from home. Because Government services cannot really be put on hold for too long, fast tracking of digitization of Government is not only important but urgent.
Towards this, Huawei in partnership with the ICT Authority yesterday completed an online training for civil servants so that they’re also upto breast with tech, and how to use it to their best advantage. The training was centered around trends, e-government, smart cities, Internet of Things, and Cyber security.
More than 400 civil servants registered for the first phase of the training over 5 days that was jointly organized by the ICT Authority and Huawei. Second and third phases of the training are already being planned to reach thousands more civil servants nationwide. It is part of an ongoing effort by the ICT Authority of capacity building for government employees as well as to ensure the implementation of ICT standards and secure ICT infrastructure and systems.
The training explores the latest ICT trends, such as in the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI), and the latest in e-government and smart city projects. This is particularly timely as the national and county governments expand their digitization of public services such as education and health, as well as management of systems such as revenue systems and public utilities. It is also timely as the Konza City takes shape with various smart city facilities planned for next year provided by Huawei.
Huawei experts have trained and certified lecturers from 30 Universities and training centers in Kenya through the ICT Academy programme and it is these local lecturers who are provide the training, combining the global expertise from Huawei courses alongside their local understanding of the situation, context and needs. This is an excellent example of collaboration between government, academia and private sector which is also a sustainable mechanisms for building and transferring expertise within Kenya.
The civil servant training is one aspect of a multi-pronged capacity building partnership between Huawei and the ICT Authority that also includes training Kenyan youth through the Seeds for the Future program and the professional training offered to interns enrolled in the Presidential Digital Talent Programme.
“As Kenya implements the Digital Economy Blueprint and the ICT Authority’s Strategic Plan, it is critical to upskill the organisation’s workforce; this will enable the country to take advantage of ICT to power economic growth and deliver public services efficiently and effectively across the country. Huawei is proud and delighted to be able to share our global expertise to contribute.”