In a pact inked yesterday between Cisco and China's Ministry of Education, 35 "model software colleges" in the country will now be part of the Cisco Networking Academy, a program which teaches students how to use the firm's networking products.
These schools were earmarked by the Chinese government in 2001 to focus on IT education and to expand the pool of networking and software professionals in the country. They include top local universities like Peking University, Nanjing University and Tsinghua University.
Under the agreement, Cisco said in a statement it will sponsor "all the electronics courses, supplementary teaching materials, program support, professional certifications and instructor training", with each college training around 200 students over the next two years.
The value of this investment is estimated to be US$37.7 million, the firm added.
Cisco's Networking Academy is offered in schools across 145 countries. To date, more than 260,000 students have enrolled at more than 9,800 Cisco academies.
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