• Announcements
  • CertMag.com: Cisco Networking Academy Raises Profile of IT Careers
  • Networking Academy Program Update (August)
  • President Bush Highlights Cisco Networking Academy Program in Radio Address
  • Yahoo! Finance: Cisco ''Promoting IT Careers'' Initiative Builds on Strength of Cisco Networking Academy Program
• 2006 Academy Conference
  • 2006 Academy Conference Materials Available for Download
  • U.S. Recognition Award Winners Announced
• Curriculum and Equipment
  • Quarterly Equipment Update
• Tools for Academies
  • All Academy Day Toolkit Now Available Through www.cisco.com/go/promoteitcareers
  • New CCNA Labs and Study Guides from Cisco Press
• Tools for Students
  • Direct Your Students to the U.S. Alumni Newsletter (July)
  • Prepare for the CCNA Exam with Cisco Press
• Success
  • Academy Students Excel in 9th Annual SkillsUSA Internetworking Contest
• Promoting IT Careers
  • It’s Time to Build the Bridge for IT Career Pathways by Peter Joyce
  • All Academy Day Toolkit Now Available at www.cisco.com/go/promoteitcareers
  • Yahoo! Finance: Cisco 'Promoting IT Careers' Initiative Builds on Strength of Cisco Networking Academy Program
• Market Research
  • CNNMoney.com: The 10 Fastest-Growing Jobs
• Who Do I Contact with Questions or Concerns?
• Newsletter Feedback

CertMag.com: Cisco Networking Academy Raises Profile of IT Careers

“It's been a good year for the Cisco Networking Academy, which has the mission of promoting IT careers to high school and college students. The past 12 months have included unprecedented levels of interest in the program's Job Shadow Day and networking events, as well as a visit to an Academy from President Bush.”

Read the full article

Networking Academy Program Update (August)

This communication is the third in a series of updates on the Cisco® Networking Academy® Program. Our goal is to inform you of the various initiatives we are taking to improve the Networking Academy program and keep you informed of how these initiatives will impact your Academy.

Click here to view a short video from Tara Collison, Manager, Metrics & Research, Corporate Affairs Strategic Operations. As we have mentioned in previous communications, our focus is now on student outcomes and on developing curricula that will best meet the educational needs of our students. This video presents some research that Tara and her team have conducted in collaboration with the Cisco Learning Institute. The research will be used to help ensure that the products and solutions delivered through the Networking Academy program remain relevant and provide students with employable skills.

View the June Networking Academy program update

President Bush Highlights Cisco Networking Academy Program in Radio Address

Following his visit to the Cisco Systems® San Jose Campus, President George W. Bush highlighted Cisco Systems and the Networking Academy program in his weekly radio address on April 22, as he announced his American Competitiveness Initiative. President Bush discussed how Cisco and the Networking Academy program are preparing the next generation for the high-tech jobs of tomorrow, while helping to ensure the competitiveness of America in the world economy.

Listen to the audio clip

Yahoo! Finance: Cisco ''Promoting IT Careers'' Initiative Builds on Strength of Cisco Networking Academy Program

2006 Academy Conference Materials Available for Download

Approximately 450 Networking Academy instructors, administrators, and state department of education representatives from more than 365 Networking Academies attended this year’s St. Paul, MN, Phoenix, AZ, or Nashville, TN, Academy Conference.

Beginning with theopening session featuring a Networking Academy update presentation, keynote addresses, and industry panelists, the program theme of Promoting IT Careers addressed how the Networking Academy program is uniquely positioned to address economic competitiveness in the United States.

Log on to the Academy Conference 2006 Website to access many of the presentations from both the technical and program sessions. Check back often as materials will continute to be added.

Details about Academy Conference 2007 will be available in October 2006.

U.S. Recognition Award Winners Announced

This year, the Academy Conference Recognition 3-R Awards were launched with 37 awards announced across the three Academy Conference 2006 events. More than 150 nominations were received in the categories of Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.

The complete list of award winners appears below. Congratulations to all of our 2006 winners.

Watch for details about our Academy Conference 2007 Recognition Awards Program.

Rigor
Rigor refers to academic reach. In this category, student nominees see the Networking Academy program as an opportunity to build success in their pursuit of a post-secondary degree. Instructors encourage their students to leverage the Networking Academy program to pursue post-secondary degrees. Academies create bridges for their students to pursue post-secondary degrees.

Academies

• DoDEA / Dept of Defense, Arlington, VA
• Miami Lakes Educational Center, Miami Lakes, FL
• West Virginia University-Parkersburg, Parkersburg, WV

Instructors

• Ken Chesler, Heald College, Portland, OR
• Scott Rogers, Carlisle Center for Careers and Technology, Carlisle, PA
• Tammy Bradley, Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC

Students (High School/Technical School):

• Caleb Castleberry, North Forsyth High School, Cumming, GA
• Quinn Snyder, Round Valley Academy, Springerville, AZ
• Ryan Kolesar, Euclid High School, St. Euclid, OH

Students (Post-secondary):

• Anthony Dahle, Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown, SD
• Davion Crumel, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL
• John Dwyer, Anderson Academy, Cincinnati, OH

Relevance
Rigor is the first step in a nominee’s path; relevance is the second. In the Relevance category, nominees demontrate how they have applied what they have learned or taught academically to career development—for example, through an internship, job shadowing, a career day, or career placement activities.

Academies

• College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL
• Porterville High School, Porterville, CA
• Queens College CUNY, Flushing, NY

Instructors

• George Hockenberry, Commonwealth Technical Institute, Johnstown, PA
• Jeff McDowell, United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, ND
• Marlon Vernon, Miami Lakes Educational Center, Miami Lakes, FL

Students (High School/Technical School)

• Johann Padron, Miami Lakes Educational Center, Miami Lakes, FL
• Jon Gayda, Polaris Career Center, Cleveland, OH
• Kyle Brown, Calhoun Area Technology Center, Battle Creek, MI

Students (Post-secondary)

• David Hatton, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
• John Paul Shafik, US Army School of Information Technology, Arlington, VA
• Mitchell McDaniel, North Lake College, Irving, TX

Relationships
Academic rigor and successful models for demonstrating the relevance of classroom skills form the foundation for student success. Building strategic relationships (human/professional networking) closes the loop on creating a platform for student success and extends the reach of the Networking Academy program beyond the academic context.

Academies

• ECPI College of Technology, Newport News, VA
• Ft. Hays State University, Hays, KS
• Pittsburgh Job Corps, Pittsburgh, PA

Instructors

• Jerry Mesquita, North Lake College, Irving, TX
• John Owens, SCT BOCES, Elmira, NY
• Keith Grumbly, Hungerford Prep High School, Eatonville, FL

Students (High School/Technical School)

• Charles Chen, Thomas Edison HS, Jamaica Queens, NY
• Hanly De Los Santos & Stacie Gonzalez, Miami Lakes Educational Center, Miami Lakes, FL
• Matt Chaney, Capital Area Career Center High School, Springfield, IL

Students (Post-secondary)

• Charles Clarke, Hocking Technical College, Nelsonville, OH
• John Zhang, Collin County Community College, Frisco, TX
• Ryan McGuire, Indiana Institute of Technology, Fort Wayne, IN

Quarterly Equipment Update

The purpose of the quarterly equipment update is to inform you of periodic changes to equipment and ordering processes that are not time sensitive. As always, we’ll keep you posted about other equipment updates by e-mail.

Read the July 28 Quarterly Equipment Update

• Network Security Economy Bundle Revised
• IP Telephony Learning Materials Equipment List Revised
• Leasing is Available for Academy Lab Equipment

Read the June 1 Quarterly Equipment Update

• Order Fulfillment Process for U.S. Academies
• Efforts to Add SIGMAnet as an Approved Vendor to State Contracts
• Academy 871 Router Promotion Ends July 28, 2006
• Equipment Update for CCNA, CCNP, and Network Security
• Use NETLAB AE to Remotely Access Adtran-Enabled Lab Topologies
• New NETLAB AE Topologies with Remote PCs
• Helpful Resources

All Academy Day Toolkit Now Available Through www.cisco.com/go/promoteitcareers

New CCNA Labs and Study Guides from Cisco Press

Cisco Press® is publishing a new series of books called Labs and Study Guides for each CCNA® course. These books replace and improve upon both the Lab Companions as well as the Engineering Journal and Workbooks. Some of the features of this new series include:

• All the labs in the online curriculum
• Additional Challenge Labs
• Study Guide section with classroom-tested exercises
• Written by Networking Academy instructors Shawn McReynolds, Allan Johnson, and John Rullan
• Instructor's edition with full answer key available online

Learn more by downloading the Instructor’s edition

To download the Instructor's edition, you will need to log in or register. If you are a new user, Pearson will confirm you are an instructor. You’ll then have full access to these new tools.

Networking Basics CCNA 1 Labs and Study Guide: Learn more | Instructors Edition

Routers and Routing Basics CCNA 2 Labs and Study Guide: Learn more | Instructors Edition

Switching Basics and Intermediate Routing CCNA 3 Labs and Study Guide: Learn more | Instructors Edition

WAN Technologies CCNA 4 Labs and Study Guide: Learn more
Instructor’s Edition – coming soon

Visit the Cisco Press Instructor Resource Center for further details and to request review copies.

Direct Your Students to the U.S. Alumni Newsletter (July)

Encourage your students to read the U.S. Alumni Newsletter, which will inform them of alumni benefits, Career Connection opportunities, and resources that Cisco provides to support them in the classroom and beyond. Then encourage them register for the Alumni Program so they can start receiving each issue directly.

The June issue of the newsletter includes:

• Overview of alumni benefits
• Ask the Expert session on routing and switching, data center technologies, optical equipment, and storage networking
• Interview with a Cisco Gold Certified Partner
• Interview with a Cisco Channel Account Manager
• Articles on finding the perfect job
• Industry articles
• A quiz challenge
• Links to previous issues of the U.S Alumni Newsletter

Prepare for the CCNA Exam with Cisco Press

31 Days Before Your CCNA Exam, A Day-by-Day Quick Reference Study Guide for the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA student

The only CCNA exam preparation resource to address the gap in CCNA exam readiness, 31 Days Before Your CCNA Exam is a practical way to commit to taking the CCNA exam one month after completing your work in a Networking Academy program.

This book includes:

• Visual calendar summarizing each day
• Checklist for the CCNA exam providing advice for activities leading up to the exam
• Description of the CCNA exam and how to sign up for it, including how to use a voucher
• Description of exam day and important strategies to be mentally, organizationally, and physically prepared for the exam

Learn more.

CCNA Official Exam Certification Library, Second Edition

The official test preparation package for CCNA certification now includes 30 minutes of personal visual instruction on CD-ROM.

The CCNA Official Exam Certification Library, Second Edition,  includes the most recent printings of the 2003 CCNA INTRO and ICND Exam Certification Guides, First Editions. The included CCNA Video Mentor, Library Edition, contains three select video labs from the full version of the CCNA Video Mentor coming in August.

Learn more.

Academy Students Excel in 9th Annual SkillsUSA Internetworking Contest

The annual SkillsUSA Championships concluded June 23 in Kansas City, Missouri.

SkillsUSA is the national organization for students in trade, industrial, technical, and health occupations education. It sponsors the SkillsUSA Championships annually to recognize the achievements of career and technical education students.

More than 4700 outstanding career and technical education students joined in the excitement of hands-on competition in 84 different trade, technical, and leadership fields. The 53 Internetworking contestants came from 39 states and 49 Cisco Networking Academies.

Internetworking competition consists of three key areas:

• The networking design problem tests a contestant's ability to design functionality, scalability, adaptability, and manageability of an Internetworking system.
• The written exam tests the student's complete knowledge of Internetworking concepts.
• The hands-on component of the competition demonstrates the contestant’s abilities to make cables, troubleshoot network systems, configure routers and switches, and deliver customer service in a technical assistance center environment.

All of the SkillsUSA Internetworking medalists, listed below, come from Cisco Networking Academies.

Internetworking Secondary

• Gold: Lukasz Tomicki, Columbia Area Career Center, Columbia, MO
• Silver: Daniel Martin, Harkness Center-Erie 1 BOCES, Cheektowaga, NY
• Bronze: Thomas Beirne, New Market Vocational Skills Center, Tumwater, WA

Internetworking Post-secondary

• Gold: Scott Manning, Boise State University, Boise, ID
• Silver: Rod Seney, Central Georgia Technical College, Macon, GA
• Bronze: Anthony Dahle, Lake Area Tech Institute, Watertown, SD

The SkillsUSA contests are planned by technical committees made up of representatives of labor and management and are designed to test the skills needed for a successful entry-level performance in given occupational fields. Safety practices and procedures are judged and graded and constitute a portion of a contestant's score.

It’s Time to Build the Bridge for IT Career Pathways

By Peter Joyce, Cisco Networking Academy Program Workforce Development Manager

It was a terrific summer! Our Networking Academy conferences in St. Paul, Phoenix, and Nashville gave us a chance to tag up with many old friends, as well as anopportunity to meet new ones. The meetings also allowed us to hear firsthand from some of our industry partners such as Berbee Communications, Spanlink, Best Buy, Calence, NIC, CBTS, Digital Connections, American Electronics Association, and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Many of you told me how great it was to hear from employers. The employers told me how great it was to hear from educators. So why are meetings like this such a rare occasion?

Building the bridge for successful career pathways

As the IT worker skill requirements continue to increase, have we also inadvertently created a chasm between our schools and workplaces? For an industry that experiences such dramatic and rapid changes, this chasm is a clear roadblock for students as they proceed along their career path and transition from the classroom to the workplace.

Networking Academies that have developed working relationships with a Cisco office or other local IT employers report improved recruitment, stronger retention, and even inspirational success stories. These Academies maintain a regular dialogue that extends beyond the curriculum and ensures that students know the latest technology trends, workplace requirements, and the career opportunities ahead.

Commit to Promoting IT Careers This Academic Year

It is time to build the bridge necessary for successful career pathways. There are many ways to get started. Take the initiative to review the list below and commit to one or more activities for this academic year. Pick one that is manageable and that you know can accomplish. You will have opportunities to build on this success!

• Advisory Council: Don’t wait until the next Academy Conference to hear from employers. Pull a group of local employers together to discuss their business and explore possible partnerships. Keep it simple and easy for them to attend.
  
• Guest Speakers: Plan to invite an industry representative to speak to your students on the “the day in the life of an engineer or techie,” the latest technology trends, or even a special area in the curriculum. Approach your Cisco Account Manager. Use graduates from your program. Leverage other vendors through your school .
• Tour: How about going offsite? Use your contacts to arrange a tour to view a company’s network infrastructure or see new applications. This takes a bit more planning—including the transportation hurdle—but the payoffs are great! Need help? Why not look at Cisco partners in your area?

Last year we launched www.cisco.com/go/promoteitcareers, a new Website to support you in promoting IT careers. The site provides a wealth of resources and information to get you started.

• Coming Soon! Virtual Field Trips: Transportation budgets tight or even nonexistent? Schedule the field trip to come to you! Download one of our past virtual field trips from Academy Connection (Tools > General > Virtual Field Trips) or search the Cisco NewsRoom video archives for a short video on the IT topic of your choice. Watch for an announcement about new virtual field trips by September.
• Groundhog Job Shadow Day: Yes, that day of celebration in Punxsutawney is a perfect opportunity to get employers involved in your program. Last year 400 Cisco volunteers visited schools and hosted students at local offices. Learn more.
• All Academy Day: Celebrate your program with a day of informal competitions, presentations, and fun! Establish small school teams to compete in router troubleshooting, computer repair, cable building, and/or a quiz bowl. Invite instructors or employers to judge the competitions. This year we will make a limited number of All Academy Day equipment kits available to Academies on a rotational basis. Learn more about this in the article below!

Set a goal and a date – and remember to tell us about your success!

All Academy Day Toolkit Now Available at www.cisco.com/go/promoteitcareers

All Academy Day is a competition that gives students the chance to demonstrate the skills they have learned through the Cisco Networking Academy Program and explore career pathways by interacting with IT professionals.

The All Academy Day toolkit contains all the resources you need to host an All Academy Day event.

The All Academy Day has many benefits, including:

• Allowing students to showcase their skills by competing in fun, team-oriented competitions
• Introducing students to practical IT topics
• Promoting interest in IT careers and motivating students to continue their studies
• Building relationships between Networking Academies and their local IT communities
• Providing a forum for students to interact with other Networking Academy students
• Helping students explore career pathways through interactions with IT professionals

Yahoo! Finance: Cisco ''Promoting IT Careers'' Initiative Builds on Strength of Cisco Networking Academy Program

Anticipated Shortage of IT Professionals Sparks Effort to Attract More Technology Students

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that demand for IT professionals will grow by nearly 50 percent through 2012, with more than 1.5 million new computer- and IT-related job openings. The same study reports that the United States will have only half that many qualified graduates because of the declining number of students enrolling in math and science courses. To address this trend, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Networking Academy Program are teaming up to promote IT careers in the United States. The multifaceted initiative includes Job Shadow Days, NetWork Strategic Recruiting Events, and All Academy Days.

Read the full article.

Download the market research which is compiled for the Academy program by a public relations firm. Information is broken down by category: job market / technology trends, gender, Cisco news, theater-specific information.

CNNMoney.com: The 10 Fastest-Growing Jobs

FIve of the top 10 fastest-growing occupations identified by Business 2.0 are in IT. See the top 10 list.

If you're looking for a job that's here to stay, here's a counterintuitive piece of advice: Look into tech. It's one of several sectors on our list that is slated to see the sharpest job growth between now and 2014.

Read the full article.