The skills gap is widening globally.
NIL and Cisco will unveil their flagship Project 525, named for its intended development of 500 CCIE engineers by end of the year 2025, at an exclusive online and in-person event on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at their offices in Waterfall City, Midrand.
Conceived by Martin Camp, MD of NIL Data SA, and brought to life by NIL and Cisco, Project 525 is a curriculum that will take Cisco Certified Networking Professionals (CCNP) through the practical application and learning that is required for them to achieve the coveted Cisco Certified Internetworking Engineer certification.
Why is there a need for this programme?
By 2025, 97 million new jobs will be created due to advances in technology and automation and South Africa’s shortage of these sought-after certified technology skill sets is increasing. In fact, it is well known that the “skills gap” is widening globally, despite myriad attempts to close it. One of the reasons for this is the way most employers and educators think about both the problem and the possible solutions. We tend to define a skill as expertise acquired through schools, educational institutions and short courses rather than as something gained through the application of this knowledge to practical experience.
The CCIE lab exam consists of two parts; the first is a three-hour test of low-level design skills, and the second, five-hour module demonstrates your ability to implement, optimise and troubleshoot those technologies. The lab exam has been specifically designed to show not only how good the engineers' knowledge is, but also to demonstrate the application of the learned concepts and technologies in real-world scenarios. It is the ultimate test of both skills and the application of these skills.
Having successfully assisted Cisco in delivering the CCIE 360 programme in 2018, NIL is uniquely placed to understand what is required to certify as a CCIE engineer and the time required to successfully complete the exams. Becoming CCIE certified is no simple task and the decision to pursue this track should not be taken lightly by anyone who wants to achieve this accolade. It requires total commitment, from both the engineer and the employer, to the many hours of learning and lab practice that are required to successfully attempt the final exam.
The CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure curriculum goes beyond the traditional routing and switching technology to include new and evolving technologies like SD-WAN, SDA, cloud computing, network automation and programmability, SDN and IOT. The biggest permanent change of the pandemic is that networking and security teams are working more closely together, and the latest CCIE curriculum enables engineers to gain an understanding of where and how the network can become the first line of defence for the security posture of the organisation, and also of the organisation’s customers.
On a personal level, holding a CCIE certification can increase job security; it is an amazing learning tool, which will assist in the development of new skills that can immediately be used on a daily basis; one of these skills could be the skill of troubleshooting in a whole different, more methodical way. In a competitive employment environment, it is imperative to engage in continuous learning for holders of the CCNA and CCNP certifications, then the CCIE is the next logical step, and is the goal of any Cisco Network engineer.
Our brand new CCIE programme takes the best of the 360 programme and applies it to the new CCIE curriculum by offering a combination of e-learning, workshops and regular mentoring sessions to afford the delegates the best possible opportunity to attain the certification. This unique approach enables us to continually assess the learning progress and adjust our approach if required.
We understand that obtaining a CCIE is not something that is undertaken lightly. It requires a significant investment of both time and money and the resulting certification ensures that the employee becomes a globally desired commodity. To assist companies to negate this brain drain, we have created this programme to comply with the Workplace Skills Plans (WSP) that are required to be submitted to receive payments and rebates from the SETAs through the Skills Development Levy (SDL) and SARS.
Through our partnership with the Institute of Chartered IT Professionals (ICITP), the holder of the CCIE certification is recognised as practising at a professional level, like academic qualifications, professional designations are registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), the difference is professional designations have no assigned NQF level, as they are by nature, a post-academic and post-graduate qualification. The successful candidate will have achieved the international certification and will also be registered with ICITP as an ITP(SA) Information Technology Professional
The programme can be included in the Workplace Skills Plan, the aim of which is to encourage organisations to contribute towards skills development, address critical and scarce skills shortages and create employment opportunities for learners. Our learning and development team is standing by to provide guidance on these processes to enable a reduction of the overall cost of the programme.
Working together with Cisco, NIL is preparing the programme for recognition as a derivative work; this protects your investment as it ensures that our programme maintains exceptionally high standards of delivery while remaining up to date with any curriculum changes. Furthermore, Cisco allows their customers to make use of Learning Credits (CLCs) to purchase derivative work courses and programmes. The purchase of CLCs can be arranged with the Account Managers from Cisco.
We look forward to welcoming you onboard Project 525 as we launch our initial product offering, the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure. In line with the goal of training 500 CCIEs by 2025, we will soon be adding other CCIE tracks:
- CCIE Security
- CCIE Wireless
- CCIE Data Centre
- CCIE Service Provider
- CCDE – Certified DevNet Expert
