Cisco: Teaching Students to be More Market Relevant

The education sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. And for American tech conglomerate like Cisco, they are committed in developing this sector extensively, at a time when competitors are focusing on other areas of growth.

“The education sector is inside the DNA of Cisco” says its Malaysia Managing Director Albert Chai.

“We have been actively giving back to society through this work and we are happy to contribute further. For the last twenty over years, we’ve partnered with universities in Malaysia, with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), and with other partners with the aim of making students more relevant to the market” he adds.

Infrastructure and systemic training is important to ensure that any training is done in a manner where it is replicable and orderly. Here, Cisco is confident they have the right systems in place with their training academy.

“In our Cisco Networking Academy, we ask our students to apply their technical skills to make them more relevant. We train them to hone their entrepreneurial skills. We ensure that we are able to market their knowledge and launch new products and services well,” he says.

“Over the years, we’ve invested a sizeable amount of cash to ensure that we are enabling our students and our partners to be more competitive, marketable, and have the entrepreneurial sight in mind” he adds.

Under the new administration of Malaysia, Cisco is confident they are going to do well, despite changes in government.

“We are a focused lot. For us, it is business as usual, notwithstanding the results following the 14th General Elections” says Albert.

Technology companies tend to focus their investments in Research & Development. On this front, Cisco is no different as Albert explains.

“Cisco Systems globally spends close to 12 percent annually on Research & Development. On top of this, we acquire one of two companies every month if not every quarter, resulting in over 180 acquisitions of various companies in the past 15 years” Albert explains.