Pakistan Academy Aims to Promote Women's Opportunities in IT as Country Experiences over 100% Increase in Student Numbers

Dubai, May 25, 2006: Cisco Systems today announced the opening of the world's first Regional Cisco Networking Academy Program specifically for women. The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), in Pakistan, is the fifth Regional Academy for the country, where there are now also some 42 participating Local Academies.

Prof. Dr Bushra Mateen, Vice Chancellor of the LCWU, said: "Until the near past, women had employment opportunities only in limited fields. However, organizations today are increasingly striving to include more women in their workplaces, improving female-male ratios to support women empowerment and participation. There is a huge job potential for women in call centers, educational institutions, public and private organizations and related domains, as women are often considered more reliable than male employees."

Regional Academies are the middle tier of the Networking Academy program, providing the expertise to train up tutors in local academies which then provide tuition to students. The new Regional Academy is the first in the world to be dedicated only to women. This Initiative is another step in the ongoing work done by Cisco's Gender Initiative, launched by Cisco in partnership with the Cisco Learning Institute (CLI) in April 2000 to increase women's access to IT training and career opportunities.

Through collaboration with the Networking Academy program and partners such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Cisco and CLI are helping increase female participation in the Internet economy. There are currently over 40 thousand women on the Networking Academy program across the world.

Dr. Aamir Matin, general manager of Cisco Pakistan, said: "The program equips women to become productive members of their communities, personally and professionally. This initiative will not only empower women to extend their knowledge of IT, but also provide them with the opportunity to hone their business skills for bright careers in the marketplace. Through the Networking Academy program, Cisco will work with the academies to increase student enrolment and retention to bridge the IT skills gap. Since August of 2005, 1091 students have enrolled in Cisco Network Academy program in Pakistan, a 105 percent increase over the previous year."

As a part of Cisco's commitment towards the Pakistani community, the Networking Academy program intends to donate technical equipment to eight of Pakistan's universities. Additionally, up to three bundles of IT lab equipment are being given to LCWU to support the college in training women for jobs in Pakistan's IT industry.

Launched in October 1997, the Networking Academy program has grown to more than 11,000 academies in more than 151 countries. The curriculum comprises a variety of courses for careers in network design and administration, technical support, programming, software engineering, database development and administration. It is delivered in 11 languages to over 1.9 million students in academies in high schools, colleges, universities, technical schools, community based organisations and other educational programs around the world.

The Academy program uses a blended learning model, integrating face-to-face teaching with a Web-based curriculum, hands-on lab exercises, and Internet-based assessment. Graduates are prepared for networking and IT careers in the public and the private sectors, as well as for higher education in engineering, computer science and related fields.

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© Press Release 2006