Samsung Electronics continue efforts to impact skills

By Today Financial News Writer

The second Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy in Africa has been launched at the Woodvale Centre in Nairobi. 

A core part of Samsung’s vision to fast-track the entry of African youths into the electronics job market, the Engineering Academy program has a short-term goal to develop 10 000 Electronics Engineers across the continent by 2015, and aligns to the government’s 2030 Vision to encourage entrepreneurship and self-employment initiatives.

120 students, selected from Samsung E-learning Centers located at PC Kinyanjui and Kabete Technical, will attend the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy and receive hands-on, practical skills training at no cost, enabling them to move into well-paying jobs after they graduate.

After they complete their training at the Academy, Samsung will also assist students in kick-starting their careers by giving them the opportunity to intern and thereafter work and serve as independent service technicians or employees in their retail channel outlets in the region.

In conjunction with the launch of the Academy, Samsung East Africa also opened a Customer Service Plaza in the same building, which will provide a one-stop shop for service, repair and inquiries on all Samsung products as part of the company’s continued efforts to improve customer service in the region.

It will also provide students at the Engineering Academy with first-hand experience of 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 CSR initiatives to our history and core business,” says Samsung Business Leader, Robert Ngeru.

“Our aim is to promote co-operation, innovation and the exchange of new ideas in technology so that our products and technologies continue to respond to the real needs and conditions of the continent.”

He said in order to reach their business goals; there is need for 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 thought-leadership in Africa,” he said.