Cisco Networking Academy: Partnerships for Innovation

Cisco believes that education represents the strongest foundation for lasting social and economic progress. We also believe that public-private partnerships are essential for developing and deploying the latest educational advances, and for making formal learning more relevant to the 21st century workforce. Networking Academy is part of Cisco’s firm commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, for instance. (Cisco helped develop the MDG Monitor at www.mdgmonitor.org, an online portal for policy makers, journalists, and others that show how countries are progressing toward the goals.)

Cisco Networking Academy provides Cisco and other ICT firms — as well as organizations in an array of industries outside ICT — with knowledgeable workers who have demonstrated their mastery of networking skills and can make an immediate contribution to business goals - including environmental and sustainability goals. But in broader terms, Network Academy graduates are helping to build the global information infrastructure upon which companies, communities, and countries increasingly depend.

The program has been operational globally for more than a decade. Established in 1997, Networking Academy was originally conceived as a small-scale program designed to help schools get the most out of their networking equipment. In 2010 it has grown to become Cisco’s largest corporate social responsibility program, with courses taught at more than 9000 academies in 165 countries. This year the program will reach one million students world-wide.

A workforce that is well-schooled in ICT can help spur innovation across a range of industries, which in turn opens up additional business opportunities, fuels productivity and economic growth, and underpins efforts towards greater sustainability. Education is the catalyst that produces the entrepreneurs, technologists, thinkers, knowledge workers, teachers, and leaders who collectively make it possible for individuals, economies, and communities to prosper. Through a diverse ecosystem of public-private partnerships, Networking Academy helps spark that catalytic process worldwide.

Cisco Networking Academy enables the company to bring its ICT expertise, strategic leadership, business acumen, collaborative focus, and financial strength to play its part in closing the “digital divide” and equipping today’s learners with the skills, knowledge and experience to help them participate in the knowledge economy. In partnership with stake-holder academies across the globe, the Network Academy delivers a comprehensive, 21st century learning experience to help students develop the foundational ICT skills needed to design, build, and manage networks, along with career skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking. Students also complete hands-on learning activities and network simulations to develop practical skills that will help them fill a growing need for ICT networking professionals around the world.

Our current portfolio consists of 14 courses:

• IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software — provides an overview of how the internal components of a computer work.
• CCNA Discovery (4 courses)— provides an introduction to networking.
• CCNA Exploration (4 courses) — provides an introduction to networking. CCNA Security –helps students develop a comprehensive understanding ofnetwork security concepts.
• CCNP (4 courses) — the CCNP curriculum focuses on the advanced routing, secure wide area access, multilayer switching, and networking

management skills.

We partner with public and private institutions such as schools, universities, businesses, nonprofits, as well as government organizations, to develop and deliver innovative ICT courses, and improve the effectiveness and accessibility of the program. Networking Academy courses are prone to regular revision and update through a dialogic process that engages specialists from the industry and academia and program stakeholders, meaning that the content and its delivery remain pertinent, relevant and adaptable.

Networking Academy is predicated on a flexible, global model, its courses can be offered by stake-holder academies as stand alone curricula leading to industry-recognized certification, or integrated into undergraduate or postgraduate degree courses, depending on the requirements of each institution. Networking Academies can today be found in universities, schools, government ministries, prisons, hospitals, community centers and more; from San Jose California to the Kibera Slums of Kenya.

In addition to the curricula, students and instructors also benefit from a range of resources needed to accomplish their goals. These include social networking websites, comprehensive events program and webinar training, which have the additional, demonstrable benefit of creating opportunities for dialogue with our stake-holders, whilst fostering a sense of community and collaboration amongst students and instructors across the globe.

ICT education has a direct impact on social and sustainable economic well-being. The World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2008-2009 states that “good education fundamentals and high levels of technological readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth.” The GITR Report uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) as a primary measure for determining a country’s level of ICT development, which relates closely to various indicators of economic development.

Networking Academy enrolment correlates with countries’ NRI. In a macro-level, quantitative study of economic impact on countries, Stockford & Wright (2009) found a significant relationship between 117 countries’ level of participation in Networking Academy and their capacity to leverage information and communication technologies for economic and social development.

At the micro level, according to a survey of 17,000 students in 2009, a vast majority of students (70%) who completed the 4th CCNA course attained a job opportunity and, in a traditionally male dominated industry, 29% of graduates in developing countries are female. To put it simply, the program is equipping individuals globally with the skills and the knowledge to contribute to their community’s long-term social and economic well-being

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