Cisco Networking Academy Program Celebrates Five Successful Years

April 3, 2003

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

The Cisco Networking Academy Program is a comprehensive, global e-learning program that teaches the Internet technology skills needed to prepare students for the twenty-first century work force. Now enjoying its five-year anniversary, it has become a shining example of Cisco's community spirit in action.

"I truly believe that education and the Internet are two great equalizers in life," says Cisco Systems President and CEO John Chambers. "The Networking Academy program is succeeding every day in teaching students around the world the skills they need to join the information age and to help their communities."

Corporate citizenship is integral to Cisco's culture. The Academy program has proven to be the embodiment of that philosophy as its positive impact on individuals, their communities, and education spreads throughout the world.

Helping Individuals and Their Communities

The Academy program's success is seen in the large number of participants, its global reach, and its efforts towards gender equality, among other factors. Launched in 1997, it has grown to more than 10,000 Academies in all fifty U.S. states and in 149 countries, with a curriculum taught in nine languages. More than 468,000 students and 21,000+ instructors are active in Academies in high schools, colleges and universities, technical schools, community-based organizations, and other educational programs. Cisco Networking Academy Program

Beth Murora, from the National Rwandan Ministry of Women's Affairs, was accepted into an Academy pilot project sponsored by Cisco, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the World Bank's Information for Development Program. She faced numerous challenges - from arranging transportation to the Academy in Ethiopia, to medical needs (she was six months pregnant with twins) to the curriculum itself, she had a bachelor's degree in Public Administration but little computer experience. Beth succeeded, thanks not only to her own efforts but also to her instructors, whom she credits as being extremely helpful and encouraging. She completed her Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA^TM) coursework and returned to Rwanda with practical networking and IT skills.

Not only has this opportunity made a difference in Murora's personal life, it enables her to help her fellow citizens as they strive to rebuild Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. She's particularly anxious to help empower Rwandan women. "I intend to use the knowledge gained through the Networking Academy to help raise women out of poverty with the technical training to run organizations and develop businesses," she says. "The Academy program provided an opportunity for me to be a part of the rebuilding of Rwanda."

A Meteoric Rise to Success

As the stories of Beth Murora and others illustrate, the Networking Academy program has come a long way in just five years. It traces its roots back to 1993, when Cisco initiated a project to design practical, cost-effective networks for local schools. These schools needed on-site people trained to maintain their evolving networks, and Cisco responded with instruction for teachers and staff that inspired a seminar program across the U.S. The success of those seminars prompted schools to ask for a formal curriculum, and the result was the Cisco Networking Academy Program. The company has since extended the program to community colleges and universities worldwide, U.S. "Empowerment Zones" (among the most economically challenged communities), and to Least Developed Countries, in conjunction with the United Nations.

The Networking Academy program features a highly-effective, blended learning model that combines Web-based content, hands-on labs, online assessment, and face-to-face teaching. Well-trained and supported instructors encourage the students to leverage their own learning style - whether it be visual, auditory, or other. "This blended learning environment eliminates the time, geographic, socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic boundaries that can limit access to education and advancement," says Susan Jeannero, Cisco's senior manager of education marketing. "It's therefore highly effective in reaching disadvantaged and at-risk communities worldwide."

The assessment strategy, completed using interactive online exams and hands-on performance assessments, is designed to inform or improve learning and to hold students and teachers accountable for results. On average, about 30,000 online assessments are taken daily in Academies worldwide.

IT Skills and Preparation for Industry Certification

Teaching basic to advanced Internet technology skills, the Academy program prepares students for industry-standard certifications, including Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP^TM) - each of which entails a 280-hour curriculum.

Taught at the secondary and post-secondary levels, CCNA is the first step towards Cisco Career Certifications. Students learn how to install and configure Cisco switches and routers in multiprotocol networks using local and wide-area networks (LANs and WANs), provide Level 1 troubleshooting service, and improve network performance and security.

CCNP is taught primarily at the post-secondary level; entry requires a CCNA certification. This advanced curriculum trains students to install, configure, and operate local and wide-area networks and dial access services for organizations or networks from 100 or more nodes with a wide range of protocols and technologies.

Cisco has expanded the curriculum to include optional, partner-sponsored courses by industry leaders such as Fundamentals of UNIX and Fundamentals of Java Programming (Sun Microsystems), Fundamentals of Web Design (Adobe Systems), Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling (Panduit), and IT Essentials (Hewlett-Packard).

Global Impact

Stories like that of Rwanda's Beth Murora - of people helping themselves and their communities with the training they receive through the Academy program - can be found around the globe.

CCNA Graduate at Shanghai Stock Exchange
Ye Jing, a student in China, was her university's first Academy student. After earning her CCNA certification, Ye Jing was hired by the Shanghai Stock Exchange as a network engineer. She was selected to participate and speak at the United Nations Beijing + 5 conference held at the UN Headquarters in New York in June 2000.

College Students Help Local Phone Company
A team of seniors in the Information Networking and Telecommunications program at Fort Hays State University, Kansas, used their networking training to benefit the community. They designed and implemented a network topology upgrade for a local telephone company, helping move the independent rural telecommunications provider forward in the level of technology it provides the region.

Single Mom Tackles IT Curriculum
Up until the end of last year, single mom Amanda Brewster had absolutely no idea how to use a PC. But only a few months later and thanks to Tidworth College, she completed a highly specialized course in IT Networking. From Thruxton, England, Amanda was only the third woman to enroll in this particular Academy in its first eighteen months. "Gaining this qualification means a lot more to me than just a piece of paper; it's about restoring my self-esteem and proving myself, not only to my classmates but also to my children," she says.

Multiple Success Factors

The Networking Academy program's success is due to many factors. Cisco has managed to harness its unique assets and expertise into what the Harvard Business Review recently described as 'a program that no other educational institution, government agency, foundation, or corporate donor could have designed as well or expanded as rapidly.'

"What the authors point out, and what we're very proud of, is that we engage our whole set of assets - not just our dollars but our human capital, products, services, employees, facilities, and global reach - and we bring all that together to create this unique learning environment," says John Morgridge, chairman of the board at Cisco. "Through the Academy we blend the goals of the business and of outreach; it's only through blending those goals that one can have sustainability."

Cisco looks forward to helping many others - individuals, local and national governments, and international organizations - by continuing to leverage this proven learning model. Its accomplishments to date in helping people, communities, and education from rural Africa to Shanghai bode well for a similarly successful next five years - and beyond.

Jenny Carless is a freelance writer based in Santa Cruz, CA.