Coal Grove – Giving high school students marketable job skills is the focus of the Cisco Academy at Dawson-Bryant.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

Coal Grove – Giving high school students marketable job skills is the focus of the Cisco Academy at Dawson-Bryant.

The school has offered the program for three years as an elective class. Program instructor Joel Utsinger said, "if students want to go into computer networking or network administration…this is an excellent class."

Utsinger explained the Cisco programs started in high schools because of the demand for trained technicians.

"With the way technology has grown," Utsinger said, "there is an increasing need for trained and certified professionals to handle the networking needs."

He said the demand for network technicians is due to the increased accessibility and use of the Internet.

Students not only receive instruction in the theory of networking, but the students receive hands-on training in installing and maintaining networking systems. Students work at the school installing and wiring computers and take their skills outside of the classroom and into the business world.

The students have taken their skills out into the public, networking computers in businesses and agencies in the community. Utsinger said the work experience gives the students "hands-on practical world experience." He added that he is always looking for businesses in the community that have networking needs so the students can gain more experience.

Utsinger said the future outlook for the networking field is high because of the increased use and demand for computers. He said, "in the field of technology, this is just the ground floor."