NAIROBI, Oct. 12-- Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei said 10 engineering students from Kenya are already in China for further professional and practical ICT training.

A statement from the Kenya ICT Authority said the second batch of the students who left Nairobi last Friday will be in Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen for two weeks for training to enhance their ICT capacity.

"This is the second batch of students to benefit, after the first phase of the program whereby 9 Kenyan students from different universities travelled in December 2014," the Kenyan ICT authority said in a statement received in Nairobi on Monday.

The programme dubbed Huawei Seeds for the Future commenced in 2014, where the students drawn from different local universities will receive skills from "top" IT specialists at the Huawei University. So far 28 Kenyan engineering students have benefited from the programme.

The programme is a global initiative by Huawei launched in five other African countries, with Kenya being the first beneficiary.

It offers internships to top engineering students in their third, fourth and fifth years of study with the aim of equipping them with relevant industry skills. It aims at training 40 students by the end of 2015 and a total of 100 students in three years.

"It is expected that 40 students will have completed the two-month internship program by end of 2015 and 100 students in three years time," the authority said.

The program targets to enroll top engineering students from Kenyan Universities in their 3rd, 4th and 5th year of study and equip them with necessary industry skills.

The ICT Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei Technologies in June 2014 to develop local ICT talent, enhance knowledge transfer, promote a greater understanding of, and interest in, the ICT sector, improve and encourage regional building and participation in the digital community.

The partnership is part of the wider Kenyan ICT master plan which seeks to develop human capital and workforce to drive the ICT industry.

"We continue to partner with the private sector to provide ICT human capital. Of the 28 past beneficiaries, four have already been employed at Huawei Kenya, with two others at Kenya Education Network and McKinsey Consulting (K) Limited. The remaining 12 students have since gone back to complete their university studies," ICT secretary Fred Matiang'i said.