Oman’s shift to a knowledge-based economy allows Huawei Certification to be one of the highest paid qualifications in the ICT sector. Huawei Certification used to be another line on the CV, but not anymore. Huawei’s partnership with Omani universities and ICT academies has made Huawei Certification a game changer. Coupled with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology’s (MTCIT) Makeen Digital skills strategy, and Oman Vision 2040, Huawei Certification has become financially rewarding.
Most guides cut the answer short by addressing eligibility and exams. Oman issues cash incentives to students after completing the Huawei Certification under the governmentsic national scholarship fund using Omani Riyal. If you’re thinking about whether HCIA, HCIP, or HCIE has value in 2026, the cash incentive should be on the top of your list to register.
What is Huawei Certification?
Huawei Certification is Huawei’s global program for professional and technical certifications that break down the progression of an ICT career into three levels.
The Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCiA) certification pathway introduces learners to the fundamental knowledge of a variety of specializations, including Routing & Switching, Cloud Computing, Security, WLAN, Datacom, and even AI. The HCiP (Huawei Certified ICT Professional) certification comes after HCiA, made for those working directly with the technology, and designed to demonstrate a deeper knowledge in the corresponding specialization. HCiE (Huawei Certified ICT Expert) is the certification designed to enhance a job candidate’s visibility to hiring managers and network architects, beyond the IT help desk.
The three certification levels recognize over 20 technical domains and are offered through Huawei Talent, the learning and certification arm of Huawei. When it comes time to take the proctored exam, Huawei Talent partners with Pearson VUE to deliver the exams at a VUE test center or online via OnVUE.
In Oman, what makes this especially relevant, is that with respect to ICT infrastructure backing most of what Omantel and the telecom sector relies on, Huawei is not a remote vendor; it is a major vendor. Local employers recognize the credential because they engage with the technology on a daily basis. A Huawei-certified network engineer in Muscat does not compete with abstract global talent; they are known to employers doing the actual hiring.
A Deeper Partnership Between Huawei And Oman
To understand 2026 as a good year for certification, we must examine the history of this relationship.
Huawei began establishing ICT Academies in partnership with universities in Oman in 2013. ICT Academies train students before they take a certification exam. Huawei ICT Academies in Oman reached more than 5,000 students by the time the global academy network reached beyond 3,000 of universities and trained more than 1.3 million students by 2022.
MT CIT’s Makeen digital capability development plan of Oman establishes a training pathway pillar, among others. Huawei was contracted to provide the training and certification component of this plan. Makeen is a four pillar plan, the others being pathways and women in technology. The vision of Huawei’s certification and training component was youth enablement.
Makeen took the stage as Huawei held the 7th Huawei ICT Competition Middle East and Central Asia Regional Final in Muscat with the support of the Royal Family of Oman and in partnership with MTCIT and Omantel. The regional final was held in Muscat for the first time. More than 19,300 students from 472 universities in 11 countries: Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Pakistan, and other participating countries, competed in this event. During a GCC Ministerial Committee meeting that was held in conjunction with this event the Omani government announced the initiative that is most relevant to this article.
This is what students search for, and rightly so. Certification is valuable when someone is willing to pay you to earn it:
The Omani Riyal Cash Reward: financial incentive provided by the Omani government to Huawei-certified students
At their December 2022 event, the Omani government revealed their Five-Year Scholarship Incentive. This program will offer Omani students around $450,000 USD, or approximately OMR 173,000, if we consider the fixed peg of the Rial to the dollar, paid out over a five-year period for each student who earns a Huawei Certificate. Since the program ends in 2027, 2026 is undoubtedly within the active incentive period, which accounts for the increase in registrations.
The reasoning behind the reward is fairly simple. MTCIT was interested in making a change to the field of ICT, making this training something students sought after rather than a tedious obligation. A direct cash incentive connected to an internationally recognized certificate does that significantly better than yet another certificate of attendance. For a student thinking about whether the weeks of training it will take to prepare for an HCIA or HCIP exam is worth it, this scholarship changes that thinking completely.
Let’s make this clear. The scholarship offered by the Omani Rial is an incentive offered by the government that is a scholarship pool. This is NOT an instant cash reward offered by the government upon passing an exam. MTCIT and Huawei Oman will manage the disbursement of the scholarship, the amount, and the process in which the scholarship is claimed, and it is best to contact your Huawei ICT Academy coordinator or MTCIT directly about it. What is confirmed is the size of the commitment and the principle of the reward: a scholarship offered to national students who earn a Huawei certification.
Huawei has more than just cash benefits. For starters, the Eagle Talent Program was launched alongside the regional final and offers interns to top competitors and provides them with a fast-track direct hiring process to work with Huawei Oman if they clear their internship review and oral defense. In certain regions, participants of the Huawei ICT Academy receive small additional benefits which include Huawei Cloud vouchers or accessories if they complete particular course tracks which are worth asking about when you register locally.
Who’s Eligible?
In this case, Eligibility has different levels, which makes sense to separate.
For the Huawei assessment, there is no real barrier to Eligibility. Huawei doesn’t place a degree barrier or a minimum number of years of experience behind HCIA. Anyone can create a Huawei ID on the Huawei Talent platform and work through the course content and sign up for an assessment. In Oman, this means that job seekers can all pursue certification.
Note:
Please visit https://work.chron.com/degree-requirement-behind-hcia-barrier-15597.html for more information on the HCIA eligibility barriers mentioned above.
There are more specific criteria for the Omani Riyal cash incentive because it is a national scholarship fund as opposed to an international promotion. Because of this, MTCIT has narrowed the focus of this particular incentive to Omani students, who are generally connected to a Huawei ICT Academy partner university or engaged through the Makeen initiative, and who later successfully earn a Huawei certification. If you are an Omani national working or studying in the ICT field and are not connected to a Huawei ICT Academy at a university in your country, this is the gap you should focus on, as it is the pathway used by MTCIT and Huawei to identify and verify the candidates.
For non-Omani residents, which covers the vast majority of the expatriate ICT workforce in Oman, including many Pakistani professionals, you can still pursue Huawei Certification and utilize the certification on the job market. However, assume the cash incentive does not apply to you. Confirm your status with the academy coordinator or your employer before considering it.
How to Register: Step by Step
The registration process is the same core process whether or not you are interested in the scholarship incentive. Incentive tracking happens separately through MTCIT and your academy.
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Create a Huawei ID. Register an account on the Huawei Talent platform. This ID is used to manage your courses, exam bookings, and certifications.
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Register with a Huawei ICT Academy (recommended). Click on “My Academy” and register your university or training institute in Oman and wait for the request to be approved by an academy admin which usually takes a few days. Academy students have access to structured coursework, lab access, and instructor support. This is the route MTCIT uses to determine students who are eligible for the scholarship incentive.
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Study your track. Choose a domain (e.g. Routing and Switching, Cloud, Security, Datacoms, or AI) and study the official course material on Huawei Talent. There are free courses that cover a significant part of the HCIA curriculum.
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Book your exam through Pearson VUE. Once you are done with your coursework, schedule your written exam through Pearson VUE (OnVUE online proctoring or at a test centre if available in Oman) and bring your government ID which should match the details on your Huawei account.
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Sit the exam and receive your result. Huawei certifications are valid for three years, after which you will be required to recertify or move to the next level to keep your certification active.
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Confirm your incentive eligibility. Omani students eligible for the cash reward should contact their ICT Academy coordinator or MTCIT once they are certified and check how their result will be documented in reference to the scholarship fund.
You do not need agents or any paid intermediaries to complete each of the steps. The process is facilitated through Huawei Talent directly.
Because It Is Worth it
Digital skills are core to Vision 2040 and a growing number of roles in government and the private ICT sector. Omantel is looking for candidates with Huawei certifications for its jobs. The Huawei certification shows Omantel and other employers that you can do more than read about IT from a textbook as you have a good working knowledge of the tech stack and solutions employed in Oman’s telecom and enterprise networking.
If you factor in the credentials, in and outside the region, another opportunity available is the Eagle Talent Internship. Then, there’s the company’s focused effort on gender balance through Huawei Women Developers. You will have a good opportunity of working in a once male dominated area. Additionally, you can get a national scholarship should you qualify.
Finally, everything leads to the fact that a short period of study is a worthy investment.
Work through the official Huawei Talent courses relevant to your track before self-studying a practice question. Use Huawei lab simulators where available to get hands-on practice, as memorized theory never sticks beyond HCIA. For HCIP and especially HCIE, which require a lot of practical troubleshooting, enrolled students in an ICT Academy should talk to their instructor as they too have sat the exams and will be able to show you where you have been losing marks. Set aside four to six weeks as a minimum for HCIA level exams and a lot more for HCIP and HCIE.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does passing the examination guarantee I get an Omani Riyal cash reward?**
Not exactly. MTCIT handles payment as part of a national scholarship fund in conjunction with Huawei Oman, and it doesn’t happen immediately. Check with your ICT Academy or MTCIT regarding the current status of the claims process.
Do non-Omani residents get the cash incentive as well and get the opportunity to take a Huawei Certification exam?**
Yes. Registration through Huawei Talent and Pearson VUE is open regardless of citizenship and nationality. The cash incentive is linked to Omani students only.
How long does one requires to study for the HCIA exam?
Most of the candidates who have some background in ICT easily take four to six weeks to study with the official course material published by Huawei and set aside consistent study time.
Do I need to be a University student to register?
Formal registration is not a prerequisite. Any individual can become a Huawei user and register on their own. However, joining a Huawei ICT Academy is highly recommended as MTCIT follows that route to identify their scholarship candidates and the Academy also provides instructor support.
Conclusion
Hiring managers across Oman may still recognize the Huawei Certification, but 2026 is really the year to stop optional thinking. With the backing of MTCIT, the scholarship extending through 2027, and the decade long Huawei academies, this year just provides more reasons to get the certification. The Eagle Talent internship pathway and the Omani Riyal incentive scholarship will be harder to ignore. If you’re a student, connect with your local ICT Academy. Making this investment with the co-sign of the government will pay off. Start with a Huawei ID.