Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling Opens Doors For Students
The cabling course, from the Cisco Networking Academy? Program, was sought by teacher Tony D'Assisi to provide more opportunities for his grade 11-12 students. "I went after the course because I thought it would give the students a greater opportunity in getting employment when they go out into the workforce," he says, and as a result his secondary school is the first one to offer it in Canada. At the end of the first course, not only is he a fan, his students are happy too.
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"The big advantage for these kids is they get employability skills." - Tony D'Assisi, Instructor, Central Technical School, Toronto |
TOP THREE STUDENTS
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| Tony D'Assisi |
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Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling is a hands-on, lab-oriented, e-learning course on the physical aspects of voice and data network cabling and installation. Students who successfully finish the course will get a Certificate of Completion including an endorsement stamp from the Communications Workers of America.
The three top students in D'Assisi's class at Central Technical School in Toronto were Chan Ngo, Tham Diep and Dan Dang. All three, who also took the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) course, have decided to continue their education at college. The course, Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling, sponsored by Panduit Corporation, had a major influence on them.
Ngo liked computers and had been planning to take a college course focused more on computer programming but after taking Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling he is going to take computer engineering. He enjoyed the hands-on cabling portion of the course and says, "I want to work on more Cisco-type things like networks."
Diep is planning on taking a three year course in electronics engineering technology, focusing on communications, and hopes to work for a company like Cisco.
The course has totally changed Dang's future. "I was planning to work," he says, "but now I want to go to college and take internet networking." He finds the cabling and networking interesting and says nothing before that really appealed to him enough to make him want to go to college.
A highlight of the course was the lab work, particularly making cables. Ngo enjoyed the satisfaction of finishing the cable. Diep remembers the representative from Panduit Corporation who showed them how to make fiber optic cables and says, "We actually got to make one ourselves and that was fun." Dang enjoyed making fiber optic and Cat 5 cable.
D'Assisi, who is the construction technology/ electrical instructor at the school, says there are students in the class who didn't take the CCNA course. They will be graduating and will likely be looking for work. "The big advantage for these kids is they get employability skills," he explains.
D'Assisi says the electricians in the electrical industry are now doing a lot of the cabling so he thought it would be a good addition to the students' education to offer the cabling course. He feels, "If they do go out in the industry, they already have the background in cabling. That will give them an advantage in finding jobs as an electrician and cable installer because their employers will have to do far less training."
Fundamentals of Voice and Data Cabling is a new course in Canada from the Cisco Networking Academy Program but already it has had a positive impact on its students.
September 2004
