The Internet is emerging as a revolutionary force in our lives, redefining the way we communicate, work, shop, and play. Just as significant is its influence on the way we teach and learn. It is not only changing the type and amount of information available, but also the way ideas are delivered.

Today, education systems worldwide are having a difficult time keeping pace with the rapid evolution of information technology. Even in large industrialized nations, many classrooms lack Internet connections, leaving students ill-prepared for the opportunities and jobs generated by today's information-driven economy. And those educational institutions that have computers and Internet access often struggle to maintain and grow their information resources, hampered by limited budgets and a shortage of technical expertise. The Cisco Networking Academy Program is a timely response to these challenges. It is a highly successful alliance between Cisco Systems, education, business, government, and community organizations around the world. The program has seen phenomenal growth since its launch in the fall of 1997 and now spans the entire United States and more than 40 countries.

At Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, education is our heritage as well as our future. Cisco is committed to working with educational institution around the globe to ensure that today's students master the necessary skills for success in the Internet Economy. Increasingly, all businesses will rely on highly trained, technology-literate workforce in order to thrive in the coming years. Toward that end, the Cisco comprehensive e-learning system, known as the Cisco Networking Academy Program, fosters student development and exposure to information technology through its networking curriculum.

Cisco Networking Academy is a part of an important effort to ensure that more skilled Information Technology (IT) workers will be available in the job marketplace locally and nationally. Currently, it is estimated by International Data Corporation (IDC) that there will be more than 510,000 unfilled IT positions in the Europe by the end of 1998 and that figure could more than triple to 1.6 million by the year 2002. As more companies expand and begin to utilize networks, and as more schools connect to the Internet, the need for IT workers will only increase.

The program centers on teaching students to design, build, and maintain computer networks. But the significance goes well beyond the central lesson plan. Using Web technologies, the Cisco Networking Academy Program prepares students of the 21st century workplace and simultaneously serves as a valuable model for successful e-learning. For educators and administrators, the program management tools provide built-in accountability, a theme of growing importance for educational institutions around the world.

The Cisco Company provides a complex educational course from base to the advanced concepts, from making cabling to such difficult concepts as rules and strategy of subneting.

The program uses Regional Academies as concentrators, any of them makes supporting up to ten Local Academies. These Regional Academies teach the Local Instructors, which provide studying at Local Academies. The Regional Academies have duty of control and supporting the Local Academies on such questions as performance of the educational program, quality of the educational plan, efficiency training of the students.

Various methods of teaching are used such as interactive lectures, graphic materials, QuickTime movies, books and manuals. From the students it is required, that there project should contain not only technical decisions, but also were focused on concrete needs of the users of networks.

The Local Academies receive methodical and technical support from Regional Academies. They also provide access to SMARTNET services, which gives full-time access for reception from a Technical Assistance Center Cisco (TAC) and Cisco Connection Online (CCO).