Milton Keynes (UK), October 2010 - The UK's largest Cisco Academy, The Open University, is celebrating its rapidly growing suite of IT-vendor certifications by offering two free places to study in the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) programme starting in February, 2011.
Cisco Systems is the world's leading supplier of networking equipment for the internet. The CCNA programme will convey the knowledge, understanding, and skills needed to configure a local-area network (LAN) and wide-area network (WAN) using Cisco equipment.
Kevin Streater, Executive Director, IT&Telecoms at The Open University, says, "As the leaders in part-time distance education, The Open University is committed to helping organisations address the skills gap with relevant courses to build professional skills. Vendor-certified courses such as Microsoft, Cisco, and VMWare are highly demanded additions to our BCS-accredited courses designed to enhance student employability and support specific industry job roles, for example Computer Forensics and Project Management.
As the fastest-growing Cisco Academy, The Open University delivers CCNA and CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) curriculum using an online virtual-learning environment provided by Cisco.
The Open University is also a Microsoft IT Academy, accredited by CompTIA, the Linux Professional Institute, and a BCS-accredited training partner. As a founding sponsor in the Cyber Security Challenge UK, The OU is committed to addressing the shortage of skilled professionals in the cyber-security sector.
