Networking vendor Cisco on Friday said it would invest to develop 400,000 networking professionals over the next five years, to address the IT skills shortage in Asia Pacific.
According to a IDC study, commissioned by Cisco, by 2016, there will be a skills gap of over 400,000 networking professionals across the region, which will represent a segment of the two million unfilled ICT-related jobs globally within ten years.
Without investment in skills, technology progress will not translate into productivity growth, and Asia Pacific will not be able to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, said Cisco in a statement.
Based on Cisco’s projection of 10 billion connections today to 50 billion by 2020, knowledge-based jobs will become more pervasive in an Internet of Everything-driven world. As the Internet of Everything drives the transformation alongside next-generation and tech-savvy workers, job creation techniques will evolve.
A World Bank study says the ICT will have an addressable market of $800 billion globally.
“Through the Cisco Networking Academy and our world class certification program, we can help to train the workforce and address the skills gap in Asia Pacific and position graduates for the exciting world ahead in which nearly everything will be connected,” said Kevin Bloch, chief technology officer, Cisco Australia.
To support talent enablement in key areas and reduce this growing skills gap, Learning@Cisco, along with its partners, will deliver a new portfolio, consisting of IoT curricula, assessments and an upcoming Cisco Specialist Certification to advance skills development in industrial networking.
This training and certification initiative, introduced at the Internet of Things World Forum, will help meet the growing need for specialized talent that can provide Internet Protocol (IP) networking expertise, with a focus in automation, manufacturing and energy and future expansion to include equally transformative industries.
