Cisco's regional conference highlights importance of hi-tech networking courses

C i s c o N e t wo rk i n g Academy's SAARC 2018 Conference was held in Colombo recently with the participation of the Skills Development and Vo c at i o n a l T r a i n i n g Ministry.

C i s c o N e t wo rk i n g Academy offers IT skills and career building pro - grammes for learning institutions and individuals worldwide. Since 1997, more than 5.5 million people have joined the Networking Academy and become a force for change in the global economy. From secondary schools to universities to community organisations, more than 10,000 institutions in 180 plus countries offer Cisco Networking Academy curriculum. This is the flagship programme of Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts.

This programme is aimed at building the workforce of tomorrow by offering networking courses such as CCNA and CCNA Cyber Security and CCNP.

Addressing the conference, Cisco Prgramme Manager Kalhari Kaluarachchi said that in Sri Lanka, 11 institutions offer the courses and last year, some 8,000 students followed these courses.

Cisco's Global Operations Director Omar Shaban said they were closely working with the Vocat i o n a l Training Authority to produce much needed ICT professionals in the country. He said cyber security was becoming a concern for everybody and "very soon in every 14 seconds we will hear about an attack". He said Cisco had introduced state- of- the art curricula aimed at dealing with cyber security and they would help produce highly trained security professionals for the country.

Cisco Regional Manager Murugan Vasudeva, said Sri Lanka had a highly talented student population and was considered one of the fastest growing countries for Cisco Networking Academy programme in the SAARC region.

The panel discussion was moderated by Ashoke Baddage. The other panellists were Murugan Vasudevan, Dr. Ajith Pasqual from the University of Moratuwa, and Wasantha Perera, a cyber security consultant.