How to Join Cisco Netacad-CCNA Networking Academy

What is Cisco Netacad?

Cisco Netacad is a part of Cisco System’s social responsibility program. In partnership with local university and organization around the world, they deliver the most essentials entry level courses for networking and ICT. They provide classroom based instruction, multimedia-rich  networking  and ICT course contents and hands-on-experience on networking devices that helps student to gain concrete grasp of the troubleshooting, designing and managing of Cisco networks.

The courses offered by Cisco Netacad are:

 1. IT Essentials PC hardware and Software-this is the most basic skill one needs to enter into the networking arena. If you do not have any basic skills about computer hardware and software and intend to learn computer networking, then this is the right course for you. After finishing this course you may expect to learn CCNA level courses with greater understanding with little effort. After passing this exam. You will be given “CompTIA A+” certification, which is a globally accepted and recognized certification course for computer hardware.

2. CCNA Discovery-if you have little knowledge about computer hardware and software and want to pursue a networking career, then if you may start with this CCNA discovery course. It will give you general understanding of the networking, its application, and career opportunities with basic configuration skills on Cisco networking devices. After completing this course and taking the exam you may expect to receive “Cisco CCENT” certificate.

3. CCNA exploration- this is the standard networking course that most of the networking companies encourage about to their employees to have. This course will give you a Cisco networking design, manage and troubleshooting capability. On passing the exam you can become CCNA certified, which is also a great way to increase your employability in the networking market. 

4. CCNA security- these courses focus on the security aspects of Cisco devices. And for doing this course you need to have clear understanding of Cisco (CCNA exploration course) routing and switching. If you aspire to become a security expert in the networking field, this is the right course to begin with.

5. CCNP-this is advanced level of CCNA. If you already have done CCCA then you can think about taking this course. This course gives strong background on routing and switching and the optimization of a mid to large size corporate network. This is another highly desired and respected certification course among the networking professionals.

How to find a Cisco Networking academy (netacad)

If you consider to joining a Cisco Networking academy then visit www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/index.html and then on the right side of the Cisco netcad site there is an option for “academy locator”. Click on “find an academy” and then type your city name or country name or both. Click on “Locate Academies” this gives you all the Cisco networking academies on your city. Once you select the academy, contact them on how to becoming a student with them and what courses or career opportunities they offer to their students

Becoming Cisco Instructor

If you are already in the networking field and enough experience to share you networking expertise with others you can contact your local Cisco academy on how to become a Cisco Instructor. Cisco Netacad site has details about becoming Cisco networking instructor: www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/get_involved/BecomeAnInstructor.html

Cisco Netacad at a Glance

• Cisco netacad, popularly known as Cisco networking academy was launched in 1997
• This is one of the large networking academies of the world
• According to present statistics of Cisco netacad, this academy has over 3.7 million students who has either taking networking training or has completed training with them.
• This academy has over 10,000 educational partners for delivering their training programs.

Who can attend Cisco Netacad for Learning Computer Networking?

If you are doing under-graduate program in computer, electrical, electronic or communication engineering, then you can start CCNA course in your local Cisco academy. Many professionally do CCNA or CCNP even after few years of their job experience in computer networking. But if you do it before joining any job, then you will find more time to go in-depth about the CCNA course material. After doing CCNA, it is always better to do CCNP if you want to concentrate your career in networking field, especially routing and switching. Even if you are having background in commerce or any other subject other than science or engineering and find computer networking interesting, you can switching you career into the networking field by starting with the beginners level courses offer at any Cisco academy. Remember that to become a successful network engineer you just need some basics of computer and the rest is all about configuring and managing router , switches etc; no need of doing any mathematics or any statistical analysis. I even found that sales and marketing people are also interesting leaning networking basics, because for become effective sales person in technical field you need to have some basic understandings about how a computer network works. A certified CCNA job seeker always has upper hand over others without any certification.

Finally, nothing is difficult once you are committed to it. I’ve even met Cisco instructor without any technical or science related background. So, if you still have any plan for entering into the networking world and to learn how the entire Internet world works at the core level then you may think about starting your course in a Cisco Networking Academy (Cisco Netacad) in your vicinity.