Meet the newest winners of Cisco Networking Academy’s Be the Bridge Awards – Cisco Blogs

Agility in the workplace — and in education — is underpinning our lives as we navigate a post-pandemic landscape. We have witnessed the importance that agile, continued learning and student educational care plays for the well-being of individual learners, families, and their workplaces.

What our Cisco Networking Academy education partners know is that technology enables this level of agility. It offers learners from all backgrounds around the globe the opportunity to access and learn job-ready skills that are in high-demand as the global talent shortage in tech continues to grow.

It’s thanks to the dedication of our partners, Academy Support Centers and Instructor Training Centers and the extensive Instructor community supported by them, that Networking Academy has reached 15 million students since 1997. We’re also extremely proud that 95 percent of Networking Academy students who completed a Cisco certification-ready course say the program helped them obtain a job or educational opportunity.

Cisco Networking Academy Be the Bridge Awards celebrate the efforts of partners who have gone above-and-beyond in their dedication to student success. Each has sought new ways to grow expertise among our instructor base or cast a wider — and more diverse — net toward student enrollment.

I’m thrilled to publicly announce the partners who made an impact on our six-person global judging panel for this Cisco second financial quarter of financial year 2022 (Q2FY22).

Please join me in congratulating these amazing partners, and take inspiration from their extraordinary contributions:

Institution Awards

Fast Lane / SLBdiensten ASC-ITC Netherlands – Netherlands

Bridging students to exciting internships leading to attractive full-time career opportunities with Cisco channel partners. In its first year of a three-year program, 20 students were successfully placed due to this strong partner ecosystem and participating schools.

América Digital – Mexico

Super-charging partnerships with Cisco in Mexico and the Mexican Government led to 50,000 registered students, and nearly 1,000 graduates to date. A December workshop, “Yo creo en ella,” broadcast via Webex to the general public and on social media, cast a wider and more diverse net of student participants across Mexico.

Sight Savers – Kenya

Expanding access to employment opportunities for people with diverse abilities in Kenya. Bridge Academy is a consortium of partners offering skills development to a wide variety of people challenged by visual and hearing impairments and physical limitations. Graduates are matched with jobs with support from our strategic partner, Safaricom.

Red River Technology LLC – United States

Changing lives with an innovative workforce development program that is replicable and sustainable for attracting a diverse range of students at Roxbury and Holyoke Community Colleges in the United States. This partnership engaged Cisco, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, two community colleges and Red River Technology. A true collaborative project with impactful results for all!

Kazakh Academy of Infocommunications – Kazakhstan

Leading innovative student activities dedicated to digital transformation in Kazakhstan. Its national student hackathon resulted in 47 student teams attending the event to develop and pitch their projects for selection as part of the national Kazakhstan digitization roadmap.

Individual Awards

Tuan Nguyen, Bachkhoa Academy – Vietnam

Creating innovative ways to encourage and grow instructor expertise in Vietnam, leading to the highest Cisco Networking Academy student participation rate in the world within the first two months of the Cloud Security course release date.

About Cisco Networking Academy

Cisco Networking Academy is the world’s largest and longest running corporate social responsibility education program in the world. We’re particularly proud of our collective impact, especially for under-resourced and underrepresented people in our communities.

Our mission is to empower all people with career possibilities by transforming the lives of learners, educators, and communities through the power of technology, education, and career opportunities.

We partner with nearly 12,000 educational institutions across 180 countries and offer curriculum in up to 27 languages. More than 15 million learners worldwide have participated in Networking Academy since 1997; 2.9 million learners who have participated in career certification or IT Essentials courses say that Networking Academy helped them obtain a new job.

Our inclusive workforce development program equips educators with leading curriculum (licensed free to educational and non-profit institutions), Webex by Cisco, and resources and learners with industry-recognized skills and certifications. This is a true end-to-end skills-to-jobs program connecting learners with peers, mentors, and job opportunities through our job-matching engine, Talent Bridge.

Learn more about Cisco Networking Academy.

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