Huawei opens 5G training center in Britain

Huawei unveiled its 5G Birmingham Training Center on Friday to ensure that relevant 5G training is in place to meet current and future information and communications technology (ICT) needs in Britain.

A Huawei logo [File photo: IC]

The new center has the capacity to train 20 people at a time, with courses being tailored to meet training requirements. A typical course will last five days and will cover an introduction to 5G technology, principles of modern network engineering and hands-on practical installation of 5G network equipment, according to Huawei.

Once fully operational, the objective is for the center to train upwards of 1,000 network engineers per year on the latest 5G technology, the company said.

In the UK, "there's no shortage of political will to deliver 5G, there's no shortage of commercial wish for it. There are some particular specific problems like a shortage of engineers, which we do need to address," Sir Andrew Cahn, non-executive director of Huawei UK, told Xinhua.

"That's an issue mainly of government policy, making sure that we have the right people coming out of universities and colleges, but it's also for companies to deal with and that's what Huawei is doing while Huawei is recognizing that there are particular skills needed and so we're going to provide a training center to upscale engineers in 5G," said Cahn.

Before Friday's official unveiling of the training center, it has been on trial run in the past few months, with some engineers already being trained in the facility.

Ian Ward, Birmingham City Council leader, said:"5G talent and knowledge are essential for further growth and Huawei's 5G training center has already produced 157 5G-ready engineers since the first graduations took place in June this year."