Cisco has boosted its worldwide talent development effort to
help meet the increasing
global demand for networking skills.
The firm has unveiled a social learning community and new
development opportunities for individuals.
As part of the effort, Cisco has unveiled the
Cisco Learning
Network.
Designed for both the seasoned professional as well as
individuals considering a career in IT, the Cisco Learning Network
is 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.
Cisco is also announcing a major augmentation to its popular
associate-level career certification with the introduction of three
concentrations: CCNAÒ Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless.
By expanding on the competencies and skills in the CCNA
curriculum, these specialised concentrations offer individuals a
career stepping-stone into the converged technologies that make up
today's sophisticated networks, said Cisco.
"As networks continue to stimulate economic growth,
collaboration and human interaction, the
need for networking talent will grow in importance. 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," said Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, general
manager of Learning@Cisco.
"With the expansion of the CCNA portfolio and the launch of the
Cisco Learning Network, we have added two more critical components
to our companywide initiative to address the global IT talent
shortage, accelerate the development of the information economy and
improve the productivity of this vital technical community," said
Beliveau-Dunn.
In separate announcements, Cisco has also upgraded its
datacentre virtualisation technologies to further help firms
increase productivity while reducing their power consumption, and
also promised to slash its own greenhouse gas emissions from its
worldwide operations by 25% over the next four years.