Ireland's ambassador to China Paul Kavanagh hosted a reception last week for 42 students from Britain and Ireland taking part in the "Seeds for the Future" programme run by Chinese telecoms and IT giant Huawei Technologies.
Ten of the 42 students are from Ireland and their four-week programme in China starts with spending time in Beijing, where they receive an introduction to Chinese culture and Mandarin.
They then travel to Huawei’s Shenzhen campus learning about the technology industry and the long-term trends in mobile, networking and cloud computing. They will also take part in an ICT training course or undertake placements across the business.
Katie Rock (20), who is in second-year engineering at Trinity College Dublin, said the programme was broadening her horizons.
"It's my first time outside Europe. I could easily see myself working here. The younger people are more Westernised than I expected," she said on the fringes of the reception at the embassy.
Part of the point of the programme is to raise the profile of Huawei and, to this end, the students have each been given a mobile phone for the month and have been asked to send Tweets and post on Instagram about their experiences.
To get around the Great Firewall of China, which bans overseas social media, Huawei provided the students with a virtual private network (VPN). Huawei has 100 employees in Ireland and works with all major telecom operators.
Helen Fletcher (23) from Balinteer had heard of Huawei before she came to China and knew of their mobile phones.
“But I didn’t realise how big they are. It’s fascinating to see them roll out networks, but they are not at the front shouting about it,” she said.
Great opportunity
“I’m here to learn more about China and how Chinese companies work. Also to learn how we should interact with them. I want to learn about the whole telecoms area, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from the world leaders,” she said.
Alan Flynn (26) from Galway, who has just finished at DIT in Kevin Street, is also in China for the first time.
“I did my research and saw Huawei were hardware specialists, and I’m from a hardware background myself and I had an interest. The phones are starting to creep in in Ireland, I wanted to see what’s available,” said Flynn.
“I want to get more experience in the communications sector and the cultural experience is an advantage. I can possibly see myself working here one day,” he said.
The 10 Irish students come from Trinity, UCD, UCC and DIT and the programme was organised by the IDA and the embassy with Huawei.
Mr Kavanagh describes Ireland and Huawei as “natural partners”.
“Ireland is the R&D centre of the world and Huawei devotes one of the highest proportions of its earnings to R&D. Cutting edge technology and bright people – this is what Ireland has to offer and what Huawei has to offer,” said Kavanagh. “It’s a perfect partnership. You can see how impressive those young Irish students are there.”
