TechInterviewCisco Networking Academy
Fostering Bangladeshi skills the Cisco way
Information technology (IT), networking technology in particular, is providing high-growth career opportunities for students, thanks to the rapidly expanding Bangladesh economy. Cisco Networking Academy (CNA) a.k.a. NetAcad initiative has touched many students in Bangladesh with huge year-on-year growth. The last one year has seen a particular growth in need for networking professionals. Lokesh Mehra, regional manager for corporate responsibility of Cisco South Asia, who is visiting Dhaka to organise a National Skills Competition for Cisco networking academy students across Bangladesh scheduled to be held on July 5, tells Nafid Imran Ahmed about NetAcad and Cisco's initiatives to develop talent from the huge human resource pool that Bangladesh provides. Q: Please tell us briefly about the Cisco Networking Academy Programme in Bangladesh?
A: The Cisco Network Academy is an educational initiative which is being run worldwide in 167 countries and the idea is to train students on how to build, design, operate and maintain computer networks. We started the network academy initiative in the SAARC region back in 2001 and Bangladesh was among the very few countries which started the programme during the same timeframe. The initial faculty who went to Australia for training was from Buet, and they returned to start the programme at BUET followed by other institutions. Till 2005 we signed up another 8 institutions such as Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (Duet), AIUB, BRAC, Daffodil and as of today we have about 16 institutions across Bangladesh, which are pretty widespread. Apart from the 10 institutions in Dhaka we have academies in Sylhet, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and Gazipur. We have just signed up with MIST (Military Institute of Science and Technology), which is the first military institute in South East Asia to become a part of the network academy. Q: So far how many students in how many institutions have received CNA education?
A: In total we have about 4800 students of which 2600 are currently enrolled. Till now 1296 students have already graduated from the network academies. The typical computer science or IT batches are pretty small in size. So I would say we have done a decent job in training these students. The good part is 16 per cent are girls. From a gender perspective the diversity is pretty good. Q: What are the benefits of CNA education? What will the future hold for these students?
A: If we look at Bangladesh today, it is ranked as 124th in the network readiness index. The biggest impediment that Bangladesh is facing today is skilled manpower and if the country wants leverage, it needs to build a skilled resource set to tap the overseas market. Network academy is training people in a specific domain, which is networking and ensuring that these people can find opportunities within the country as well as abroad. The advantages are that along with the regular curriculum the students get a hands-on practical exposure as well as work on practical issues faced by the industry on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the students do not have to go through any additional training when they go back into the workforce. Moreover, they are industry ready when they pass out which is our primary objective. The second advantage is that students have lifelong access to the curriculum, irrespective of when they graduate or the version of the curriculum they are running. Other minor added benefits are that they have access to job sites, technical lectures and updates on new technologies. In a nutshell, the key benefits include international certification, hands-on experience and access to technology updates. Q: How is the course implemented and how does it work?
A: Cisco ties up with an educational institution and offers this programme either for the institute to integrate within their curriculum or offer it as an elective. Students are required to complete this course, which is approximately 280 hours long with about 50 per cent practical hands-on experience and at the end of the course they are eligible for various certifications such as the CCNA, which is the most popular one. We are now also looking at network security and wireless courses, which are already being offered by many institutions. CCNP (Network Professional) is another course and IP telephony also known as Unified Communication is on its way. Q: Apart from education does Cisco have any other CSR initiatives in Bangladesh?
A: I would say it was an ad hoc corporate social responsibility and this happens typically when disaster happens. When we had the floods coming in, CISCO personnel pooled in their resources and offered assistance monetarily as well as in terms of consulting and connectivity. That was the kind of CSR initiative that has happened, but on a regular basis as of now, it has been education. Q: What are your views on the IT education standard in Bangladesh?
A: I am kind of disappointed that IT education has been given as fourth subject for school students. Bangladesh is trying to become a knowledge-based economy. Why then should you look at IT education as a fourth subject? I believe the Chief Adviser is doing a lot of work in terms of collating the primary schools into a database and there are over 30,000 schools. Focus on vocational and school education needs to be enhanced, connectivity needs to be provided, infrastructure cost needs to be lessened and the internet tariff needs to be reduced. Q: Are all the universities well equipped for state of the art technology education?
A: I think they are at that stage where they trying to think of grappling the twenty first century skill sets required. A few of the proactive private universities have actually gone ahead and tried to use technology to enhance productivity. Things like using Virtual Private Networks (VPN), archiving lectures and showing them to their students, aspects for using a single converged network for voice video data should be adopted.
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