It’s always inspiring to witness learning in action. And there’s perhaps no better example of that than our NetAcad Partner conferences. At these events, we bring together the Cisco NetAcad team, policy makers, and educators with the NetAcad Partners that support our academies around the world.
At the recent European NetAcad Partner conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, I saw firsthand the dedication and enthusiasm of our European partners, who have helped to support 3,841 European academies and 5.1 million European students since NetAcad began.
They do this with the goal of better preparing the European workforce for an AI-enabled future. We share that goal with them. Just this March, Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins committed Cisco to train 1.5 million Europeans with foundational digital skills by 2030. And he announced that Cisco would train an additional 5,000 instructors by 2030 as part of the EU’s Union of Skills initiative.
There’s no mistaking the challenges before us. AI is swiftly transforming almost every job—but technology and technology-related jobs are on the cutting edge of change. The inaugural report from the AI Workforce Consortium—of which Cisco is a founding member—found that 90% of information and communications technology roles would face moderate or significant transformation because of AI.
In a follow-up report released only a year later, the Consortium found that 78% of technology and technology-adjacent roles already require some AI skills. Meanwhile, we see that job roles with the fastest-growing demand require skills in AI and machine learning. Seven of the ten fastest growing roles identified in the consortium report are directly associated with AI—from AI/ML engineers to AI risk and governance specialists to natural language processing engineers.
At the forefront of change
At NetAcad, we’re moving quickly to make sure students have the skills they need to succeed in this rapidly transforming field. During the partner conference, our workshops spanned everything from AI to security and data science to industrial IoT. Our team introduced new AI courses designed specifically for NetAcad students, and discussed our plans for helping prepare students for jobs such as junior AI engineers. We shared our AI Business Practitioner learning path, designed to help professionals in a wide range of roles use AI responsibly, effectively, and ethically.
We’ve also accelerated our timeline for increasing the scope of learning materials available in translation, making the acquisition of new skills more accessible for Europeans from a wider range of countries and backgrounds. We already offer translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian. We’ll soon be adding Czech and Welsh to that list.
We even launched a learn-a-thon as part of our technology partnership with football powerhouse Real Madrid. To compete for the Cisco Networking Academy Cup, academies earn points as their learners complete courses and earn badges. The top three academies in each country will field teams of four students to compete in a capture the flag competition. The prize: Glory, of course. And also: Five VIP tickets to a La Liga match and a private tour of the Bernabeu Stadium.
As you know, NetAcad and Cisco Learning and Certifications are now joined in one umbrella organization called Learn with Cisco. We’re always looking for ways to better share our resources and support each other across this wider team. At this year’s conference, we made that teamwork personal. A group of technical advocates from Learn with Cisco came to Thessaloniki and hosted a full-day train-the-trainers event for NetAcad partners. The workshop focused on AI, automation, and programmability, so that those partners could bring this knowledge to their academies and train instructors in these same skills. After, we brought those partners together with the Cisco team and local CCIEs for a mixer, strengthening these important ties.
At each partner conference, we come together to support each other, and more importantly, NetAcad learners. And we discover new ways to use the combined capabilities of Learn with Cisco to support Cisco’s purpose, powering an inclusive future for all.
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