Swatar Training Centre appointed Cisco Academy

Swatar Training Centre has been appointed a Cisco Regional Academy for Malta to recruit, train and support local academies, which currently are the University of Malta, MCAST and ETC.

The main speaker of the presentation was Zika Abzuk, business development manager and senior manager for Malta, Cyprus and Israel of Cisco Systems. She gave an overview of the Cisco Network-ing Academy Programme and highlighted the need for more females to enter the IT industry and that Cisco gave them this opportunity.

Claudio Grech, executive secretary from the eMalta Commission, spoke about the government's objective of attaining a first class information society and ICT centre of excellence in Malta. The government's partnership with Cisco and other such worldwide leaders in technology such as Microsoft will help us achieve this.

David DeGaetano, the STC (Swatar Training Centre) project manager, explained the role of Swatar Training Centre as regional academy and gave an overview of the course curriculum.

Juan Borg Manduca, director of the ICT institute at MCAST, Mike Rosner, head of Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Malta, and Charles Zammit from ETC, represented their respective local academies during the presentation.

The Cisco Networking Academy Programme will start part-time in January.

STC is a leading IT and management training facility in Malta, offering state-of-the-art training facilities and curricula to hundreds of Maltese students in partnership with world leaders such as the UK National Computing Centre (NCC), Cisco Training, Microsoft and KnowledgePool.

These activities have made STC an important local hub for people who are seriously contemplating a professional career in IT.

From people who wish to study IT to change their career prospects, to professionals seeking top-class update training on the latest technologies and to organisations conducting an internal staff retraining exercise, STC has become Malta's trusted choice. STC is committed to quality and professionalism in training.

Cisco's Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions are the foundation of the Internet and most corporate, education, and government networks around the world. Cisco provides the broadest line of solutions for transporting data, voice and video within buildings, across campuses, or around the world.

Today, the Internet and computer networking are an essential part of business, learning and personal communications and entertainment. Virtually all messages or transactions passing over the Internet are carried quickly and securely through Cisco equipment.

The Cisco Networking Academy Programme is a comprehensive e-learning programme that provides students with the Internet technology skills essential in a global economy.

Launched in October 1997 with 64 educational institutions in seven US states the Networking Academy has spread to 145 countries, including the US.

Over 260,000 students have enrolled at more than 9,800 academies located in high schools, technical schools, colleges, universities, and community-based organisations.

The Cisco Networking Academy is a comprehensive course that teaches students of all ages, including those who are already in employment, how to design, build and maintain networks. It allows students to get hands-on experience while gaining certification which meet employment standards.

Swatar Training Centre's appoint-ment is a response to the growing skills shortage in the networking technology that underpins the Internet.

The programme's objective is to provide companies with a sufficient number of skilled professionals to meet their goals for the Internet economy.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) research, the skills shortage in Europe, Middle East and Africa in the networking sector is estimated at 710,535 people by 2003, meaning that one-third of all vacancies in the networking sector will remain unfulfilled.