CISCO DELIVERS SKILLS FOR EMPLOYABILITY
Michael Furminger
CISCO, 11 New Square, Bedfont Lakes, Feltham, TW14 8HA, UK
mfurming@cisco.com
ABSTRACT
A series of market indicators have come together to highlight the importance of ICT
education and the essential skills needed to gain employment. To support this need there
are new ways to tackle globally the challenges of education and skills. As an exemplar of
an effective solution, Cisco’s Networking Academy provides job ready skills into the ICT
and Networking market.. The recent addition of an improved simulator has opened up the
range of e-doing skills the student gains to improve their job readiness.
1
A series of market indicators have come
together to highlight the importance of
ICT education and the essential skills
needed to gain employment. To support
this need there are new ways to tackle
globally the challenges of education and
skills. As an exemplar of an effective
solution, Cisco’s Networking Academy
provides job ready skills into the ICT and
Networking market..






Europe has skills and investment gap
Governments recognize action is
required
Cisco Networking Academy address
jobs skills – by design
Global skills based training with
online materials and assessment
Global standards for certifications
Early indicators of success
Business Challenges.
One of the driving forces for ICT education
and skills development in Europe is the
European Union’s revised Lisbon strategy2 and
the i2010 initiative. This initiative, announced
respectively in March and June 2005, aims to
strengthen competitiveness, and increase
productivity levels and economic growth
through the use of ICT. At the centre of many
European government’s thinking is how to
address the skills in ICT. Alignment with
industry and raising educational standard are
common concerns.
The IDC study “Networking Skills in Europe3”
indicated a growing skills gap for ICT
workers, with a potential shortfall of 40%
networking skills by 2012. Continued
development of mature economies is
jeopardised by skills shortage and emerging
countries lose skilled workers. Business needs
to attract staff and train then in industry
specific skills. Networking and ICT markets
require knowledge in challenging technical
topics.
In another IDC study sponsored by Microsoft
“e-skills the key to employment and inclusion
in Europe Jan 2007”4 the mature economies in
Europe were asked to rate the ICT skills of
their staff and the future needs of their market
sector. ICT skills are becoming an important
entry ticket to the job market and crucial for
people who want to move into better jobs.
Future demand for skills goes beyond basic
skills to advanced and E Business skills and
will continue to grow as the majority of staff
are expected to possess them. The study
identifies a weakness in that employers lack
the time and money to ensure that employees
have these critical skills.
Consequently
organisations rely on individual employees to
pick up skills as they go along, whereas few
make use of more flexible delivery solutions,
such as e-learning that could remedy the
situation.
In the UK the Leitch report5 sets expectations
for education and skills up to 2020. It shows
that the UK must urgently raise achievements
at all levels of skills and recommends that it
commit to becoming a world leader in skills by
2020, benchmarked against the upper quartile
of the OECD. This means doubling attainment
at most levels of skill. Responsibility for
achieving ambitions must be shared between
Government, employers and individuals. To
respond to this the government agencies need
to align with education providers and industry
leaders.
The problems of appropriate and effective
skills training is explored in the EU
communication “e-skills for the 21 century”6
one risk identified is the parallel universe of
formal and industry education. This issue is
ongoing and will be explored further in EU
conferences this year and a report due in 2010.
Alongside the skills and training agenda is the
R&D spend. The latest Eurostat report7 on
R&D expenditure in Europe shows that the
EU's research expenditure continues to
stagnate, with a slight drop from the 2003
figure of 1.92% of GDP to 1.90% in 2004. The
business sector investment declined by one
point from 55% to 54%, leaving the EU
far from its Barcelona target of spending at
least 3% of GDP on R&D, two-thirds of which
was to be by the private sector, by 2010.
Finland is the only country fulfilling the
Barcelona goals. Its R&D intensity was 3.51%
in 2004 and 70% of total research expenditure
in 2003 came from the business sector.
Bring together these facts a picture emerges
where there is an understanding and
identification of the skills training in
networking and ICT. The effective solution is
not identified as clearly pointing to the need
for creative and practical solutions, which in
part are industry led.
Solutions
Cisco has a long history in working with
education partners and in leading the way for
innovative solution s to the needs of the
internet economies. Recently Cisco launched a
Global Education initiative to stimulate debate
in this area, Michael Stevenson the VP for
Global Education has launched a White Paper
“Equipping Every Learner for the 21st
Century”8 to out line his ideas of Education
3.0. This exciting debate is trying to tackle hot
spots of need with internet based solutions.
Cisco’s position in the education space has for
the last ten years been most noticeable in the
Cisco Networking Academy. The Networking
Academy is a leader in skill based training
with on-line learning
materials and
assessments. The program has evolved over
ten years to a position where it operates 9000
academies in 168 countries, teaching 750,000
students annually. Courses offered focus on
ITC and Networking skills with an emphasis
on skills and certifications which are
recognised globally.
The Cisco Networking Academy has
undergone an in-depth update of its course
materials. At the heart of this has been an
alignment of the courses to job skills and an
understanding that different market sectors
require different styles and approach of
learning
materials.
Successful graduates of the courses are able to
take certifications but more importantly have
gained a range of hands on and soft skills to
make them job ready. Globally recognised
vendor certifications such as CCNA provides
workers with evidence of knowledge but they
do not necessarily guarantee work place skills.
The Cisco Networking Academy courses take
learners through a series of skills activities,
which
build
their
knowledge
and
understanding. At completion of the course
they have the theoretical knowledge to address
the appropriate vendor certification but more
importantly have gained practical skills, skills
and experience of ICT systems.
Three key steps were undertaken to address the
global market needs:
 Job skills evaluation
 Market Segmentation
 Courses focuses on Job skills and
certification
The job skills evaluation identified the need
for market segmentation. The focus for course
development is around the CCNA certification,
however, two distinctly different courses have
been developed aimed to address different
market sectors. The basic IT skills learner
now has the CCNA Discovery courses which
are built around the growth of job ready skills
with one learning outcome being the
knowledge to tackle the CCNA certification.
There is in fact an interim certification, the
CCENT, which can be taken after two of the
four courses.
Throughout the CCNA
Discovery students learn through practical
hands on skills and online e-doing skills by
using network simulators9 embedded in the
learning materials.
Complementing the CCNA Discovery is a
modular CCNA program, CCNA Exploration;
this addresses the needs of being an advanced
learner, probably at University, studying this
program as part of their undergraduate course.
The expectation here is that the wider learning
outcomes of an undergraduate program will be
complemented by the network specific skills
gained through study of this course.
Results
Studies undertaken by CLI10 (Cisco Learning
Institute) indicate that 80% of students report
the Cisco Networking Academy contribute to
obtaining one or more job opportunities.
Overwhelmingly the majority of students were
interested in perusing a career in IT, 63%
report they are planning a career in
networking. By aligning course development
with job opportunities Cisco Networking
Academy courses complement traditional
academic offerings so that academic
institutions are ready to offer the courses, as
they do not challenge their learning model.
Students are enthusiastic about the skills based
learning style and appreciate the enhancement
of job opportunities.
Next Steps
Looking from the perspective of Cisco’s
leadership in education using the internet,
results from the Global Education Initiative
will inform the education debate and move
more learners to benefit from the new learning
approaches and tools.
For the Cisco Networking Academy the future
is exciting as the first wave of new course
development was in English, the program has
now widen its impact by offering its core
courses in the six UN languages (Arabic,
French, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and
Russian) and to align with specific local
demands such as German and Portuguese are
being addressed.
The integration of enhanced e-doing
opportunities enabled by the inclusion of
Packet Tracer 5.0 embeds into learning
materials the opportunity to develop job ready
skills beyond networking technology as the
new version of Packet Tracer includes multiuser features that help develop team working
and working with remote partners. Remote
working skill are becoming essential for
workers in global companies, such as Cisco.
1
2http://ec.europa.eu/growthandjobs/key/ind
ex_en.htm
3http://www.cisco.com/edu/emea/general/p
df/IDC_Networking_Skills_Shortage_EW_
Europe_FINAL_5_Oct.pdf
4http://download.microsoft.com/download/f
/2/b/f2bcdab3-433b-4109-8d4e410230c47c37/IDC-White-PaperESkills.pdf
5 Leitch ”Prosperity for all in the global
economy – world class skills” – final report
http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/media/6/4/leitch_finalrepor
t051206.pdf
6 E-skills for the 21st century.
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/ictskills/2007/COMM_PDF_COM_2007_049
6_F_EN_ACTE.pdf
7 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/
8 http://www.transformglobaleducation.org
9 Packet Tracer
10 Student outcome report Nov 2007