Bangladesh ICT competition, powered by Huawei and the Bangladesh Computer Council, will move to the second round this week. The top 127 students from the country will take part in this round for the next 15 days. Around 1,000 4th year students from around 30 universities of Bangladesh took part in the competition's first round, which started in January this year. After that, the participants went through training on a designated web portal of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and sat for a test to qualify for the second round. Also read: 500-plus students compete in Bangladesh ICT Skills Competition Now, 127 students, selected based on their consistency during training and exam results of the first round, will join the second round. In this round, students will enrol in online courses from HCIA (Huawei Certified ICT Associate), and later, they will have to take part in an exam to qualify for the third round. The third and final round of the competition will be the national final. Selected participants from the second round will form teams of three students and one faculty from every participating university. Instructors from Huawei headquarters will train the contestants, who will have to pass a simulation test. The top three teams will be announced as winners. In addition to the laptops or Huawei mobiles, Huawei smartwatches, or smart bands as prizes, the champion team will take part in the Huawei ICT Competition regional final and global final competition. If the Covid-19 situation improves, they will also visit Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. They can also get a chance to work with Huawei Technologies Bangladesh in the future. The competition is considered in two parts – "Practical Competition" and "Theory Competition." This year's contest will cover network switching, routing technical areas; new technology such as big data, AI, and cloud (artificial intelligence) will be introduced. Also read: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched ICT state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “Bangladesh ICT Skills Competition is specially designed for 4th-year students who are studying engineering, and it is good to see a big bunch of those optimum students going through this program, arranged by Huawei and BCC. I believe, at the end of the competition, the students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the ICT field and acquire more practical and advanced knowledge about global ICT.”  He also appreciated Huawei Bangladesh, BCC & involved universities to make this competition meaningful and open up the ICT knowledge door for students. Zhang Zhengjun, CEO of Huawei Technologies Bangladesh said, "The sole focus of the Bangladesh ICT Competition is to fortify the digital backbone of Bangladesh by helping cultivate the local ICT talents."

The `Hire and Train’ model, introduced by the government to create skilled human resources on frontier technology to utilise the potentials of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), has ensured ‘80% job placement’ in IT companies, officials said. They said the beauty of the training model is that 80 percent or 856 of the 1070 trainees get jobs in different IT companies immediately after completion of the training that concluded last month. Leveraging ICT (LICT) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under ICT Division engaged 32 companies to provide training in `Hire and Train’ model on frontier technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain to the 1070 persons. The training was part of the Fast-Track Future Leader (FTFL) programme of the Project. “When the government is working to develop a quality training model to ensure jobs for the trainees the `Hire and Train’ model has set a unique example by providing 80% job placement in IT companies,” said State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak adding that this model could be replicated in other training programmes of the ICT Division. Palak said the government has taken various programmes, including organising training, establishing Sheikh Hasina Institute of Frontier Technology (SHIFT) and Centre of Excellence (CoE) to create skilled manpower on frontier technologies which are expediting the emergence of 4IR. “We’re taking preparations to face challenges as well as utilise potentials of 4IR,” the ICT State Minister said.    When contacted, Senior Secretary of ICT Division NM Zeaul Alam said the government cannot sit idle at a time when frontier technologies are set to play a pivotal role in accelerating the fourth industrial revolution and boost the digital economy. The government will not only continue to provide training on frontier technologies, but also help provide financial assistance to the potential startups based on frontier technologies like AI, IoT, blockchain, Augmented Realities, Virtual Realities, he said. Project Director LICT Project Tarique M Barkatullah stressed the need for developing the best quality curriculum to ensure quality training and taking steps to introduce it in the educational institution. “Otherwise, we’ll be lagging behind in creating skills to be required to face the challenges of 4IR,” he added. IT-ITES Policy Adviser of LICT Project Sami Ahmed who played a key role in introducing `Hire and Train’ model, said this model has proved to be very much effective as it ensures 80 percent job placement in IT companies.  The training held on 22 different tracks on frontier technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain, Data Science, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT) on hire and recruitment model, he said. Sami said the country’s 55 IT companies -- 35 of Dhaka and 20 of Jashore Sheikh Hasina Software Technology Park -- which are desperately looking for frontier-tech skilled manpower have benefited directly from this training.

 

 

Huawei, in partnership with Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA), is going to launch four ICT programs with the vision to accelerate the growth of the ICT industry and to facilitate ICT talents in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) of the ICT Division has won one of the world's most prestigious awards in the field of information technology, the "World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Award-2020".

Digital platform ‘Food for Nation’ opened its door for sacrificial animal sellers for free registration ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The ‘Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA) project’ of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division has completed the preliminary works on a baseline survey being conducted aiming to identify challenges for startups in the country’s different sectors.