Accra, Dec. 18, GNA- Huawei Technologies Ghana has trained over 40,000 young women in STEM this year through its maiden digital technologies training programme.
The programme, “Seeds for the Future Women in Tech” is aimed at equipping and empowering more women with the needed skills to take up roles in the tech ecosystem.
A statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency said the training which started in September 2021 has benefitted Junior High and Senior High School girls in the Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Western, Greater Accra and Northern regions.
It said through the programme, students were exposed to digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence, basic ICT skills training, coding programs and languages like Scratch, HTML and C++ while some students were taken through the needed guidelines to enable them to stay safe in cyberspace.
The statement said although a majority of the beneficiaries were SHS students, some Junior High School students, who took part in the basic ICT skills and coding training shared experiences of how the training has allowed them to create games, create stories and operate laptops on their own with little assistance.
It said traders at the Northern, Eastern, Western and the Greater Accra regions were also taken through a workshop on Financial Technology (FinTech) by industry experts from the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence to boost their businesses, economically empower them and enable them to take advantage of digital technologies to improve their livelihood.
“In ensuring that the maiden edition of the programme debuts successfully, Huawei Ghana partnered with the Rebecca Foundation, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to hold the training in the various regions,” it added.
The statement said in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization’s Girls in ICT programme, Huawei successfully trained over 40,000 SHS girls in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security in the Ashanti, Central and Eastern Regions.
The Rebecca Foundation also partnered with Huawei to train 600 JHS Girls in coding and more than 150 women (traders) in FinTech.
It said in collaboration with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Huawei engaged the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana to offer a Chinese Cultural experience workshop for about 150 women in the Ga Central Municipality and trained 1,000 JHS and SHS girls in coding and basic ICT skills respectively.
The statement said Huawei believed that more opportunities and support must be given to women to ensure they have access both to education and training to compete in the digital economy.
Aside from Ghana, Huawei has already rolled out dedicated digital skills training programs for women in multiple countries, including Ireland, Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, and South Africa.
GNA