Cisco's plan to triple global pool of network engineers

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 05:12

IT Industry - Strategy

Faced with a dire, and growing, shortage of skilled network engineers, Cisco has launched a number of initiatives to help meet its goal of doubling or tripling the global pool over Cisco-certified engineers over the next five years.

"As networks continue to stimulate economic growth, collaboration and human interaction, the need for networking talent will grow in importance, said Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, general manager of Learning@Cisco. "To address the growing global demand for networking talent, we estimate that we will need to double or even triple our certified individuals over the next five years."

Firstly Cisco has unveiled the Cisco Learning Network , designed for both the seasoned professional and for individuals considering a career in information technology. It is billed as a Web 2.0 community that enables networking professionals to collaborate globally through document sharing, open forum discussions and idea exchanges in a dedicated environment.

Second, Cisco has announced a major augmentation of its popular associate-level career certification with the introduction of three concentrations: CCNA Security , CCNA Voice   and CCNA Wireless . Cisco says that by expanding on the competencies and skills in the CCNA curriculum, these highly specialised concentrations offer individuals a career stepping-stone into the converged technologies that make up today's sophisticated networks.

These latest moves are on top of an announcement by Cisco in February of a series of initiatives in India that it hoped would produce 360,000 trained network engineers in five years that would, according to Cisco, increase the pool of network engineers six-fold.
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