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Cisco to groom 100,000 network professionals

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Cisco Systems Inc, the global leader in networking for the Internet, has drawn up an ambitious plan to train about 100,000 network professionals by 2005 to meet the growing needs of the Indian telecom industry.

The $19-billion US-based technology company will be investing around $8 million through its wholly owned Indian subsidiary to set up 34 labs across the country with equipment, course materials, and expertise to impart the required training for grooming engineering graduates into network professionals, who will be absorbed by the networking industry.

Unfolding Cisco's educational initiatives and its commitment to contribute its mite to the emerging networking industry, Cisco Systems India president Manoj Chugh told the media in Bangalore on Wednesday that the 34 labs would constitute as regional network academies in each state with many local network academies coming up in educational institutions and professional colleges affiliated with respective state universities.

"With most of the Indian engineering institutions still confined to the conventional courses, the absence of a course on networking as a subject or elective at the graduation level is conspicuous. Cisco wants to make a difference by introducing a course on the converging technologies that will benefit thousands of students who may not have the privilege of doing their graduation from prestigious institutions like the IITs," Chugh stated.

The Cisco Network Academy Program consists of courses that will impart training in how to design, build, and maintain computer networks.

"We are investing in almost each state. We have already signed agreements with about 10 states, and are in the process of negotiating with seven more by July to introduce the 2-year semester courses," Chugh averred.

Graduating students are also prepared for industry standard certifications, including the Cisco Certified Network Associate, Cisco Certified Network Professional, and NetPlus Certifications.

The program is structured on an e-learning model that delivers web-based educational content, online testing, student performance tracking, and hands-on labs.

As Cisco foresees e-learning as the great equalizer in the country, it will provide the labs with curriculum development, equipment, and training. The global company has already invested $50 million in creating e-learning labs the world over.

The networking academy also creates an educational ecosystem, which brings people together to improve education and serves as a business model for the Internet economy. "It helps create a workforce that is networking savvy," Chugh affirmed.

To set up the labs and provide the state-of-the equipment, Cisco is partnering with industry leaders such as Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Digital Island, Fluke, and Computing Technology Industry Association.

Allaying fears over the impact of meltdown in the US economy on its India operations, Chugh said the subsidiary had been surging ahead in the sub-continent with its growth rates in three digits.

He did not, however, quantify the growth rate in terms of percentage.

"Till date, about 850 Cisco employees were laid-off the world over, including in India," Chugh disclosed but declined to mention how many were laid off in India.

Referring to the revenue figures quoted by an independent survey, which has mentioned the subsidiary's billings in India around Rs 7.85 billion during 2000-01, Chugh said the figures were closer to the right numbers.

"The company's policy does not entitle me to give out the break-up in terms of geographical locations, which includes India operations."

Offering the industry's broadest range of hardware products used to set up information networks, Cisco provides end-to-end networking solutions for building unified information infrastructure to enterprises, service providers, and organisations.

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