Birmingham, Sep 21 (IANS): Chinese smartphone giant Huawei unveiled its 5G Birmingham training centre here to ensure that relevant 5G training is in place to meet current and future information and communications technology (ICT) needs in Britain.

The new centre has the capacity to train 20 people at a time, with courses being tailored to meet training requirements.

A typical course will last five days and will cover an introduction to 5G technology, principles of modern network engineering and hands-on practical installation of 5G network equipment, according to Huawei, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Once fully operational, the objective is for the centre to train upwards of 1,000 network engineers per year on the latest 5G technology, the company said.

In the UK, "there's no shortage of political will to deliver 5G, there's no shortage of commercial wish for it. There are some particular specific problems like a shortage of engineers, which we do need to address,", said Sir Andrew Cahn, non-executive director of Huawei UK.

"That's an issue mainly of government policy, making sure that we have the right people coming out of universities and colleges, but it's also for companies to deal with and that's what Huawei is doing while Huawei is recognising that there are particular skills needed and so we're going to provide a training centre to upscale engineers in 5G," said Cahn.

Before Friday's official unveiling of the training centre, it has been on a trial run for the past few months, with some engineers already being trained in the facility.

Ian Ward, Birmingham City Council leader, said: "5G talent and knowledge are essential for further growth and Huawei's 5G training centre has already produced 157 5G-ready engineers since the first graduations took place in June this year."