The pioneer class at the new Samsung Engineering Academy has officially kicked off its academic programs with a class of 200 students aimed at addressing the critical technical and engineering skills shortage in Kenya.
The new Samsung Engineering Academy established at a cost of more than US$ 1million is the second such training facility in Africa and has welcomed its full scholarship pioneer student intake as part of a wider goal to develop 10,000 electronic engineering apprentices across Africa by the year 2015.
Samsung Electronics East Africa Marketing Business Leader Ms. Betty Radier, said, the pioneer class will be delivered as a modular training program covering digital electronics repair and service skills.
Accompanied by the firm’s Service Leader Koki Muia, Ms. Radier disclosed that the students drawn from Multi-Media University of Kenya, P.C. Kinyanjui Technical School and Kenya Polytechnic will commencing Monday 14th May, begin their yearlong end-to-end training on digital electronics engineering.
All the students attending the Samsung Engineering Academy she said will receive free training and hands on exposure to modern electronics engineering practices, as part of the firms bid to deepen technical skills and facilitate job creation options.
The training programs at the Samsung Academy, Radier, further explained will help bridge the existing skills set gap for qualified service technicians to repair new generation electronic equipment such as LED/LCD TV’s, Laptops, Refrigerators, Mobile Handsets and Tablets.
“At Samsung, we view the role of social investment as critical to our business growth strategy for Kenya and indeed rest of Africa. We understand that being successful in Kenya requires entrepreneunal attitude and commitment to help create the market and infrastructure and we are willing to walk the talk,” Radier explained.
And added: “this initiative is anchored firmly on our Built for Africa Strategy which commits us to raise technical skills in tandem with our continued marketing of products manufactured to meet the unique African conditions.”
As part of its wider design, the Samsung Engineering Academy is also aligned to the government’s Vision 2030 blueprint to encourage entrepreneurship and self-employment initiatives.
Within the course duration, students attending the Samsung Engineering Academy will receive hands-on, practical skills training at no cost, enabling them to access income generating opportunities in the formal or informal sector upon graduation.
Samsung Electronic East Africa has also committed to assist the students in kick-starting their careers by giving them the opportunity to intern at its Customer Service Centres and thereafter work as independent service technicians or employees in their retail channel partner outlets across the region.
According to Samsung Electronics East Africa Service Lead Ms. Koki Muia, the firm has also opened a Customer Service Plaza in the same building as the Engineering Academy. Besides providing a one-stop shop for service, repair and inquiries on all Samsung products the service centre will also provide students at the Engineering Academy with first-hand experience on how customer and product repairs are managed.
“We believe we can best achieve our goal of positively impacting the communities in which we operate by connecting our social investment initiatives to our history and core business,” Muia reiterated.
And added: “at Samsung we are actively working to develop a skilled workforce of technicians and exclusive service experts to differentiate Samsung as a quality, service-oriented company. We also need to sustain our level of innovation, which can only be achieved if we invest in education to facilitate skills development in Africa”.
Beyond Kenya, Samsung plans to launch the third Academy in Nigeria this year.
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