Four Things You Need to Know about Upgrading Your Skills in a Down Economy

Published October 16, 2009
By Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, General Manager, Learning@Cisco

What are the most relevant courses & directions for upgrading skills in the current situation? Are they relevant at all right now?
As networks become more sophisticated and increasingly complex, the skills requirements for network professionals have rapidly accelerated and evolved. Networks have grown from basic transport systems for data to a business-critical application and services delivery platform.

To gain a better understanding about how companies can keep pace with new tools, converging technologies and expanding infrastructure, Cisco commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a global survey of 1,500 IT hiring managers across ten countries, including Russia. The results showed that in today's constantly shifting network environment, there is an immediate need to provide dedicated IT professionals with network education, self-assessment tools, and training and certification programs.

The Forrester research cited the most critical new job skills to support the functionality of the network to be wireless, voice, security, and remote office work. These specific areas demand the most urgent attention because innovation in networking tools is outpacing the skills required to implement them and manage them.

Learning@Cisco addresses the need for technical talent worldwide by providing the educational training, certifications, communities and consulting services that address the global networking skills talent gap and accelerate productivity, opportunity, and growth.

What is the situation with skills upgrade worldwide?
There has never been such critical demand for a supply of highly trained IT talent. Nearly three million skilled networking professionals are estimated to be needed globally by the year 2012, according to analyst research firm IDC.

Yet many jobs are unfilled because of the gap in available technical talent. This need cuts across small and large, local and international companies and government organizations. Our research has shown that similar trends exist in network roles regardless of geography, indicating that there is a broad, global talent pool facing common networking challenges. The skills training requirements facing regional companies is similar to those faced by global companies and role specialization is a global trend.

We must close the current and projected global talent skills gap in the information technology sector to evolve the workforce of today to meet the demands of tomorrow.

How can professional certificates help a specialist "sell" themselves? How does it influence his/her salary?
Professional IT certifications validate the skill sets and real-world expertise of IT professionals and are used by employers to qualify new candidates, many of whom consider them to be the equivalent of four-year college degrees.

Training and certification programs for wireless, voice, security, and remote office work are, and will continue to be, a critical part of ensuring a broad, global talent pool of expert IT networking professionals.

IT certification can boost an individual's starting salary well above starting salaries in other fields. In some cases, those with certifications can expect a salary 10 to 30 percent higher compared with those who do not.

What competencies are of critical importance for IT specialists in today's labor market?
Traditional positions within the network - such as network architects, engineers, and administrators - require employees with more specialized skills and greater levels of experience. At the same time, new job skills related to security, voice, wireless, and remote office work are becoming critical to the functionality of the network.

IT managers are working to hire, train, and ramp dedicated professionals. In this rapidly changing network environment, network education, skills assessment tools, and training and certification programs are required.

Skills like security, risk, and performance management are emerging as important, regardless of role. Security is becoming a nearly ubiquitous concern. Voice is a critical foundation for collaboration.

We expect the importance of mobility specialists and unified communications specialists to grow as IT organizations adapt to the new network functionalities that are becoming more embedded in networks. We anticipate that these emerging roles will encompass more than just networking; they'll be a critical liaison between network-specific expertise, end user devices, and collaboration applications.

For more information from Cisco about how you can upgrade your skills to find a rewarding career in IT networking, visit Cisco's website.