Huawei, ACT govt plan work experience program

The ACT government and Chinese telecom vendor Huawei have arranged a work experience and research program involving the company and ACT students and academics.

Under the program, two ACT undergraduate students will travel to Beijing and Shenzhen every year for a 3-week training and workshop program at Huawei laboratories and innovation centres.

Four local academics and researchers will meanwhile be selected to work with Huawei on tailored research that best suits their academic fields.

ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher announced the agreement during a visit to Huawei’s Shanghai R&D centre.

“Local students and academics will benefit greatly from exposure to one of the largest research and development companies in the world, through the Huawei Australia Undergraduate Work Experience Program,” she said.

“The Asian Century White Paper highlighted the need for Australian students and academics to become more Asia literate and the importance of opportunities, like this, in the burgeoning Asia region.”

Jeremy Mitchell, corporate affairs director of Huawei Australia, added that the company spends around $5 billion a year on R&D and employs some 70,000 R&D engineers.

Huawei has been working hard to promote itself in Australia since the company was excluded from participating in NBN tenders, in the wake of a similar ban in the US due to purported national security concerns.

Its efforts have included appointing high-profile Australian members for a local board - former foreign minister Alexander Downer, former Victorian premier John Brumby and former rear admiral John Lord. All three were last week reappointed to the board for a further two years.

Pictured: Huawei's Shanghai research facility.