WKCTC and IT professor receive prestigious awards from Cisco Networking Academy

Paducah, KY (05/09/2019) — West Kentucky Community and Technical College was recently awarded the 20 Years of Active Participation and Service award by Cisco Systems as a Cisco Networking Academy program institution.

The Cisco Networking Academy was created as a part of the Cisco Systems - Corporate Social Responsibility Program. The program provides a broad and deep information technology (IT) curriculum for students of all backgrounds, teaching hands-on technical and business skills. Additionally, with many industries experiencing a shortage of IT professionals, Cisco Networking Academy seeks to give students the skills most in demand worldwide, helping to create a trained and diverse workforce for the digital economy.

A worldwide leader in IT, networking and cybersecurity and founded in 1997, Cisco has made more than $2.6 billion in in-kind contributions of tools, resources and support to students, schools, and instructors worldwide. Nearly $11.2 million of those in-kind contributions have benefited individuals, schools and educators in Kentucky.

"WKCTC is thrilled to have been a part of the program for 20 years with more than 1,280 of our students to have participated over that period; many who now work in the IT career sector within the West Kentucky region," said John Vos, WKCTC computer & information technologies professor.

In addition to the college receiving the Cisco recognition, Vos was also awarded the 20 Years of Service award as a Certified Cisco Academy instructor. He is one of about 1,265 instructor trainers globally and is currently the only certified instructor trainer in Kentucky. The certified instructor trainer teaches other instructors from secondary and postsecondary institutions the Cisco Academy program and the curriculum offered.

"I've spent two-thirds of my professional teaching career involved in the Cisco Networking Academy program. In my opinion it is one of the best all-round information technology career building programs in the world," said Vos. "It is innovative and always right on target with business and industry needs as they have evolved over the past 20 years in technology education."

The Cisco Networking Academy learning experience includes e-learning curricula; personalized assessments; and hands-on opportunities such as labs, networking simulation software, competitions, and hackathons. Vos along with partnerships with Murray State University plan and implement the regional high school competition called "Tech-Mania," which allows high school students from across the region to test their IT skills.

For more information on WKCTC's Cisco certifications contact John Vos at john.vos@kctcs.edu, 270-534-3188 or visit the WKCTC website, search for Cisco.

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