14th May 2018
An IT student and his teacher from Barking & Dagenham College are currently in China after getting into the final of a global ICT competition.
The Huawei ICT Skills Competition was open to thousands of ICT students across the World. The competition is sponsored by Huawei and aims to promote vital ICT skills in the next generation of technology professionals.
The College’s HNC and HND in Computing students were invited to compete against hundreds of other students from across Western Europe to become one of just six who would join other global finalists in China.
19 year old Viktor Linde from Romford came 3rd out of 1200 entrants from more than 75 universities and colleges across Western European. He headed to Shenzhen, China for four days on Sunday 13th May where he is competing against 100 competitors from across the World.
Viktor who is studying on the second year of his computing HND commented:
I’m really happy about the award and grateful to Huawei for making this possible and to my lecturer Henry Quashie for the support that he’s given me.
His classmate, mature student Donika Krasteva from Dagenham also had reason to celebrate; Donika came runner up in regional round and was, in fact, the only female to achieve this. Donika is also celebrating passing her ‘Huawei Certified Network Associate’ exam with flying colours; she achieved such a high mark that she could even become an instructor herself!
Donika, who is studying on the first year of her computing HNC commented:
I wasn’t expecting such a high grade – it was such a great surprise. It would not have been possible without the help of all the tutors, so I am very grateful to them.
Both Viktor and Donika, along with their teachers and other classmates, attended an awards ceremony held at Henley Business School, University of Reading on 30th April where they were awarded with trophies and prizes for their achievements so far in the competition.
The award ceremony was opened with a welcome given by Mr Robert Yang, VP of Western Europe Enterprise Business, MD of UK&I Enterprise Business, Huawei Technologies UK&I. Mr. Yang said:
In entering the competition students have learned essential skills required for today’s ICT industry and passed tough challenges that we set along the way.
They students were not the only ones to win awards, their teacher Henry Quarshie was selected to receive the ‘Outstanding Lecturer’ award in recognition of his excellent teaching on the Huawei ICT Academy Programme. Henry joined Viktor on the trip to Shenzhen.
In October 2017 the College and Huawei launched a Huawei Authorized Information Network Academy. This not-for-profit partnership programme allows the College to deliver Huawei Certification training to its students. Since then, the students have also been working towards becoming a ‘Huawei Certified Network Associate’, in addition to their course.
