ComBank and CISCO help prepare over 2,000 students for careers in IT

More than 2,000 young Sri Lankans have successfully completed a selection of IT courses offered by the CISCO Networking Academy, as a result of a collaboration between the Academy and the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.Committed to empowering the next generation of technology experts, the Bank recently invited students over the age of 13 who are interested in enhancing their IT skills, to choose from seven IT courses offered online by CISCO, the world’s leading technology skills and career development programme.

The collaboration was launched as part of the Bank’s IT education-related CSR initiatives, with the objective of making optimal use of the IT labs donated by the Bank to schools to educate students in an up-to-date ICT curriculum and to enable students to obtain industry-leading certifications from CISCO, free of charge. While the bank covered the lecture fee for these students, the CISCO Networking Academy provided the courses free of charge. Students who have successfully completed their respective courses now have the opportunity to win scholarships for CISCO career-ready certifications such as CCNA, CCNP and Cyber Operations which are in high demand in the IT industry, the Bank said. Currently, another 290 students are following IT courses offered by the Academy.

About 1,200 students of the latest batch to pass their respective courses, chose to follow the ‘Introduction to Cyber Security’ course which explores cyber trends, threats and the broader topic of cybersecurity.

Other courses offered included ‘Get Connected,’ a beginner course that explores essential skills such as how to use a computer, connect devices, and access search, email, and social media; ‘Entrepreneurship’ which provides business and financial skills, attitudes, and behaviours to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset; ‘Introduction to Internet of Things’ that helps students learn about transforming any business in any industry; ‘IT Essentials’ which provides a comprehensive overview of computer fundamentals and an introduction to advanced concepts; ‘NDG Linux Unhatched’ that enables students to learn about the back-end operating system used by global titans such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, NASA, Tesla, Amazon and others; and ‘Cyber Security Essentials’ which covers the characteristics of cybercrime, security principles, technologies, and procedures to defend networks.