Shenzhen Xunfang Provides the ICT Sector with Talent

Reading guide: Millions of college graduates enter China's job market every July. Because of the fierce competition this influx of new graduates brings, many young people nationwide face the prospect of unemployment. Meanwhile, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is in urgent need of new talent, particularly with the rapid development of digital technologies. The industry, however, is knowledge-intensive and highly dependent on specialist skills. So how can we meet the ICT sector's demand for talent and help college graduates find appropriate jobs? This is a challenge that Shenzhen Xunfang Technology Co.,Ltd (Shenzhen Xunfang), an authorized Huawei training partner, seeks to address.

The employment prospects for college graduates in China have been increasingly bleak in recent years. In 2021, 9.09 million students graduated from colleges in China, and many overseas students returned to the country for work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the intense competition for job vacancies this caused, many graduates faced the prospect of unemployment in what was one of the hardest years in history to find a job. However, although there are millions of graduates, there is still a structural gap between talent demand and talent supply: Many enterprises are unable to find talent with the ICT knowledge and skills that suits their needs, with a talent shortage obstructing industries as they try to go digital.

To address the problem, we must focus on developing skills and ensuring that the skills being taught are suited to demand across industries. As an authorized Huawei training partner, we're collaborating with them to build a healthy talent ecosystem. We have helped Huawei hold ICT talent selection events, in an effort to provide enterprises with the talent that they need.

Developing Urgently Needed Talent

In 2019, China's ICT industry had about 10 million fewer specialists than it needed. And, as all industries digitally transform at an accelerating rate, the demand for digital talent is increasing. Meanwhile, facing serious challenges in terms of talent, organizational structure, and business skills, the ICT sector and industry verticals urgently need the support of sustainable industry ecosystems, and talent is key to building these ecosystems.

As well as regular training courses for the Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA), Huawei Certified ICT Professional (HCIP), and Huawei Certified ICT Expert (HCIE), Xunfang intends to popularize vocational training courses in colleges and universities to address the structural gap between talent supply and demand.

By collaborating with Huawei's Talent Development Department and regional business departments, Xunfang has persuaded many universities to adopt the Huawei ICT Academy and Huawei certification systems and courses. With programs that help colleges and universities establish effective teaching systems, provide skills training, and help students gain certification, Xunfang helps universities to train professionals and experts who are able to immediately meet the needs of enterprises, and to have a role in setting industry standards.

Xunfang informs the students and faculties of colleges and universities of the industry's talent needs, aiming to encourage vocational training. In 2018, Xunfang and Huawei's Rep Office in Guangdong jointly launched the HCIE Elite Engineer Training Program, which is dedicated to training high-end ICT talent. In 2019, Xunfang and Huawei held over 100 ICT Talent Ecosystem Promotion programs to share insights into the latest digital technologies, knowledge, and skills to tens for thousands of students. In 2020, thousands of college students across China earned Huawei's vocational certifications after Xunfang and Huawei launched promotional activities on Huawei's Kunpeng ecosystem (a comprehensive ecosystem, covering servers, processors, and more) new infrastructure technologies, and vocational certifications among colleges and universities.

Building a Sustainable Talent Ecosystem by Providing Employment Opportunities

Employment is the ultimate goal of talent development, so Xunfang has spent a long time exploring ways to help college graduates find suitable jobs. In 2015, Huawei's talent selection conferences attracted Xunfang's attention; they're an important platform for building industry ecosystems and help build a bridge between the Huawei ICT Academy and partners. The talent selection conferences also help bridge the gap between ICT talent supply and industry demand.

Xunfang's HR and business departments now participate in Huawei's talent selection events to recruit talent. Huawei's talent selection conferences focus on the ICT field, and the students who take part have HCIA, HCIP, or HCIE certification in technical fields — such as network, storage, security, and cloud computing — or have strong technical skills, so they can quickly adapt to, and fulfill, work requirements.

Over the past five years, Xunfang has interviewed more than 300 people each year, and recruited more than 100 students every year for internships and employment, allowing the company to build a talent pool of Authorized Service Partners (ASP), technical engineers, and managers, and enabling it to grow by over 40% for several consecutive years.

More importantly, as an authorized training partner of Huawei, since 2017 Xunfang has gradually changed its role from a participant and beneficiary of the talent selection conference to an organizer of the event.

Since 2018, Smart Cloud School, a Xunfang program, has assisted Huawei in holding nearly 10 Huawei Talent Alliance & Talent Selection Conferences in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xi'an, Tianjin, and Changsha, as well as in Gansu provinces. More than 300 ICT companies provided tens of thousands of jobs at the conferences, attracting more than 7000 students from more than 150 universities, with more than 3000 students finding suitable jobs at the conferences.

In November 2020, Xunfang helped organize the Huawei Talent Alliance & Talent Selection Conference in Shenzhen. The event attracted 68 companies, offering more than 1000 ICT jobs. More than 200 students from 10 universities participated in the recruitment, and those who had passed Huawei certifications  were favored by employers.

Huawei's Talent Alliance & Talent Selection Conferences helped connect local students with Huawei's partners and ICT enterprises, strengthen relationships between universities and employers, and provide strong talent support for the digital transformation of industry verticals.

A New Journey with Huawei

Talent is vital to support the development of enterprises and industries. As well as developing high-quality ICT talent, Xunfang is also collaborating with industry-leading companies to tackle the structural gap between talent supply and demand.

Over the past 10 years of its partnership with Huawei, Xunfang has witnessed the continuous growth of Huawei's talent ecosystem, which we are a participant, a beneficiary, as well as an organizer of. As a multi-ecosystem Huawei partner, we have a profound understanding of the company's business, having won the Huawei Gold Supplier award nine times and been named as Huawei's Outstanding Authorized Training Partner for two consecutive years.

Using that understanding, we have been working together with Huawei, exploring ways to develop talent; help more people to find jobs; and coordinate educational development, talent supply, and industry demand and innovation requirements.

As a national high-tech company with a 2500-strong staff and 33 branches in major provinces and cities throughout China, Xunfang will step up its efforts to train young professionals and help more people to find suitable jobs. We will work to solve talent development problems to produce talent that's well suited to the needs of businesses and industries.