Thursday, March 12, 2026

Showcasing Innovation and Dedication at NetAcad’s European Accomplice Convention

It’s at all times inspiring to witness studying in motion. And there’s maybe no higher instance of that than our NetAcad Accomplice conferences. At these occasions, we carry collectively the Cisco NetAcad group, coverage makers, and educators with the NetAcad Companions that help our academies world wide.

On the current European NetAcad Accomplice convention in Thessaloniki, Greece, I noticed firsthand the dedication and enthusiasm of our European companions, who’ve helped to help 3,841 European academies and 5.1 million European college students since NetAcad started.

They do that with the objective of higher making ready the European workforce for an AI-enabled future. We share that objective with them. Simply this March, Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins dedicated Cisco to coach 1.5 million Europeans with foundational digital abilities by 2030. And he introduced that Cisco would prepare a further 5,000 instructors by 2030 as a part of the EU’s Union of Expertise initiative.

There’s no mistaking the challenges earlier than us. AI is swiftly remodeling nearly each job—however expertise and technology-related jobs are on the slicing fringe of change. The inaugural report from the AI Workforce Consortium—of which Cisco is a founding member—discovered that 90% of data and communications expertise roles would face reasonable or important transformation due to AI.

In a follow-up report launched solely a 12 months later, the Consortium discovered that 78% of expertise and technology-adjacent roles already require some AI abilities. In the meantime, we see that job roles with the fastest-growing demand require abilities in AI and machine studying. Seven of the ten quickest rising roles recognized within the consortium report are immediately related to AI—from AI/ML engineers to AI danger and governance specialists to pure language processing engineers.

On the forefront of change

At NetAcad, we’re transferring rapidly to verify college students have the abilities they want to reach this quickly remodeling discipline. Throughout the companion convention, our workshops spanned every little thing from AI to safety and information science to industrial IoT. Our group launched new AI programs designed particularly for NetAcad college students, and mentioned our plans for serving to put together college students for jobs similar to junior AI engineers. We shared our AI Enterprise Practitioner studying path, designed to assist professionals in a variety of roles use AI responsibly, successfully, and ethically.

We’ve additionally accelerated our timeline for growing the scope of studying supplies obtainable in translation, making the acquisition of latest abilities extra accessible for Europeans from a wider vary of nations and backgrounds. We already provide translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian. We’ll quickly be including Czech and Welsh to that checklist.

We even launched a learn-a-thon as a part of our expertise partnership with soccer powerhouse Actual Madrid. To compete for the Cisco Networking Academy Cup, academies earn factors as their learners full programs and earn badges. The highest three academies in every nation will discipline groups of 4 college students to compete in a seize the flag competitors. The prize: Glory, after all. And likewise: 5 VIP tickets to a La Liga match and a non-public tour of the Bernabeu Stadium.

As you understand, NetAcad and Cisco Studying and Certifications are actually joined in a single umbrella group referred to as Be taught with Cisco. We’re at all times in search of methods to raised share our assets and help one another throughout this wider group. At this 12 months’s convention, we made that teamwork private. A gaggle of technical advocates from Be taught with Cisco got here to Thessaloniki and hosted a full-day train-the-trainers occasion for NetAcad companions. The workshop targeted on AI, automation, and programmability, in order that these companions might carry this data to their academies and prepare instructors in these similar abilities. After, we introduced these companions along with the Cisco group and native CCIEs for a mixer, strengthening these vital ties.

At every companion convention, we come collectively to help one another, and extra importantly, NetAcad learners. And we uncover new methods to make use of the mixed capabilities of Be taught with Cisco to help Cisco’s goal, powering an inclusive future for all.

Cisco NetAcad European Partner ConferenceCisco NetAcad European Partner Conference

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