Celebrating 20 Years of Networking Academy: Meet Fred Mpala

Cisco Networking Academy has been changing worlds for 20 years. To celebrate this milestone, we are spotlighting some of the 7.8 million students worldwide who have benefited from this IT education and career building program.

Dr. Fred Mpala

• London, United Kingdom
• Current occupation: Director, Information Security
• Networking Academy coursework: CCNA 1-4 and CCNP Advanced Routing
• One word to describe his Networking Academy experience: Community

The Networking Academy was an integral part of Fred’s college program. His regular classes gave him a solid academic foundation, but Networking Academy allowed him to reach beyond the books.

Puzzling through a networking system was “quite nerve-racking” at first for Fred, but his instructors eased him in and his confidence grew. In fact, at his first job, Fred was “confident enough to go ahead and solve problems or recommend solutions from the practical experience” he’d picked up in his classes.

Fred’s well-rounded education also means he can talk to anyone in his field. His academic background lets him speak the language of business, while Networking Academy grounds him the technology space. “Being able to communicate with people across the spectrum is a skill set I tie firmly back to that solid grounding and foundation I got as part of the [Networking] Academy,” he says.

 

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