Joseph Adut, a 28- year- old student specializing in telecommunications engineering at the University of Juba had never attended internship training with a global tech company.
He was among hundreds of excited students to file in their Curriculum Vitae on Tuesday, when ZTE South Sudan officials turned up at the university campus to launch the first-ever internship training program with the Chinese tech giant.
Adut told The Juba Echo in Juba that he was eager to land this once -in- a lifetime opportunity to acquire advanced training in the highly demanding but still nascent technology sector of his country.
“If ZTE provides me with the opportunity to train with them I will be so happy, because at the end of the training I will be able to train other South Sudanese who need training more than me,” said Adut.
“I will be able to operate equipment being delivered by ZTE to South Sudan, and also it will give me real objective to work with any telecommunication company like Zain, MTN and Digitel in South Sudan plus other new networks coming up,” he added.
ZTE South Sudan will train the first batch of successful students from the University of Juba starting Jan. 1 till March 31 2023, and the second batch from April 1 till June 31 next year.
Makuac Mading Deng, a final year student of electrical engineering specializing in telecommunication engineering, said he was very excited on seeing the internship opportunity because it is the first of it’s kind for engineering students at University of Juba.
“I am very happy with ZTE because if they train us we will be able to train our young South Sudanese who are still coming up,” said Mading.
He disclosed this internship opportunity will inspire reluctant students to pursue career in engineering studies.
“Several students have been showing little interest in telecommunication engineering, but the opportunity to do internship with ZTE will inspire many students to pursue career in telecommunications engineering,” said Mading.
John Apuruot Akec, Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, hailed the partnership with ZTE South Sudan calling on his students to take advantage of the opportunity to improve the engineering profession and the university’s reputation.
“For the students in the University of Juba, this must be good news we need really to have a lot to be inspired by a Chinese company, you are impressed by what you see their broad band that is here, the 5th generation technology that is underway,” said Akec.
Photo shows students handing in their application for internship to ZTE officer (R).
ZTE South Sudan is long-time partner of the leading telecom companies such as MTN South Sudan and Digitel supplying them with power solution, telecom hardware and back office engineering solutions.
“Our organization is very much willing to cooperate with different stake -holders here in South Sudan to help grow local talent and create employment opportunities for the citizens both locally and beyond,” said Yu Haifeng , CEO of ZTE South Sudan.
“It is from that point and background that ZTE Corporation South Sudan has decided to partner with University of Juba to create this platform and avenue for enabling young talent to transition from the class to professional environment in an amicable manner,” he added.
Mu Jianjun, the counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs in the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan, said the Chinese government has always regarded education as priority in the cooperation with South Sudan.
“The cooperation with University of Juba is a highlight of the education cooperation between China and South Sudan,” he said.
ZTE Corporation South Sudan is a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation located in the industrial district of Shenzhen which was incorporated in China in 1985, and has gone ahead to deploy in 160 countries all over the world.
The products of ZTE range from radio access and core network radio components, transmission equipment both wired and wireless, cloud access and delivery, telecom power solutions, safe city and other next generation network components such as smart grid, 5G and 6G, fiber access, tele medicine among others.
