DOHA: The College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) has reached another agreement with Cisco Systems to further boost skills training among engineering and information technology students as an added certificate aside from regular diploma upon their graduation.
The agreement was signed yesterday between Enid Strickland and Gary Tulk, CNA-Q Interim President and Vice President-Academic respectively, and Dr Amr Mohamed, Cisco Regional Academy Coordinator, Qatar University.
"This is the second part of our Cisco training agreement with Qatar University," said Steve Bolan, Interim Dean Engineering Technology. "To that end, five of our instructors have recently completed their Cisco Certified Network Associate training. Their knowledge will be transferred to our students in both Engineering Technology's Telecom program and Information Technology's Information Systems Hardware programme."
New courses will replace current offerings in existing programs beginning in September 2010 allowing students to not only graduate with a CNA-Q diploma but with a Cisco certificate as well. With over 95% of all internetworking equipment in Qatar being Cisco based, the certification will enhance the skills of CNA-Q graduates and their marketability in the workforce.
According to IT instructor Scott Gilbert the training he completed is the fulfillment of a personal goal as well a professional achievement. "This training has been part of my individual goals for a long time and I am very pleased to have completed it. My knowledge of routers and switches is far greater than at the start of the program."
Gilbert also explained that it was not just the technical side of the training that helped him grow as an instructor but also the ability to meet instructors from different departments within CNA-Q and be taught by instructors from a different school.
In his speech after the agreement signing, Dr. Mohamed emphasized the importance in the partnership in the future training needs of the State. "This partnership's ultimate goal is to train and educate the young individuals in Qatar in state-of-the-art information and communication technology - one of the fundamental pillars of a knowledge based economy."
Five CNA-Q instructors received their Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate including Ken Clancy, Permjit Soora and Mike Collins of the School of Engineering Technology and Scott Gilbert and Mohamed Rahuma of the School of Information Technology.
© The Peninsula 2010
