Cisco to train 250,000 people with cybersecurity skills in Europe over next three years

With 2023 set as the European Year of Skills, there is no better momentum to rally behind ambitious goals to bring cybersecurity skills to citizens across Europe. In this context, we are pleased to announce Cisco’s new goal to train 250,000 people with cybersecurity skills across the European Union (EU) over the next three years.

Today, Cisco’s CEO and Chairman, Chuck Robbins met with European Commission Vice President, Margaritis Schinas. They discussed the cyber threat landscape, as well as the opportunities and challenges Europe is facing regarding digital skills.

“With our goal to train 250,000 people in cybersecurity skills across Europe over the next three years, we are pleased to actively support the European Commission’s efforts to bring digital skills to more citizens.” Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chair and CEO

As Europe moves at great speed through its green and digital journey to meet its Digital Decade 2030 targets, securing what’s connected is ever more important. And that starts with basic cyber skills through to professional certification. Cisco’s Networking Academy leverages a unique ecosystem of institutions and instructors across Europe and beyond its borders to bridge the skills gap, making the digital space more accessible and safer.

Cisco looks forward to supporting the EU’s upskilling and reskilling efforts, building resilient societies, where everyone can benefit from digital tools in a secure and inclusive way.

About the Cisco Networking Academy

The Cisco Networking Academy is one of the world’s longest running skills-to-jobs programs, offering tech education through strong public-private partnerships, a high-quality curriculum, and inclusive workforce development programs.

In partnership with educational institutions, government leadership, and community-based organizations around the world, the Cisco Networking Academy leverages industry expertise to deliver a curriculum and tools focused on information and communication technologies shaping the future — such as security, networking, collaboration, and Internet of Things (IoT). Courses are designed to equip learners with the skills required by industry, using gamification, assessments, and problem-solving to support learner success.

Supporting a continuum of learning, from curiosity to careers, courses align to industry-recognized certifications and prepare learners with transferable, vendor-neutral, job-ready skills. Over the years, 94% of students surveyed in Europe, Middle East and Africa who took Cisco certification-aligned courses, obtained a job and/or educational opportunity.

The Cisco Networking Academy’s new Skills For All platform provides best in class content accessible to as many learners as possible. It allows people anywhere, anytime to begin their upskilling journey, whether the goal is basic skills acquisition or the beginning of a learning journey ending in certification and job-readiness.

Examples of Networking Academy cybersecurity partnerships in Europe

The Cisco Networking Academy collaborates with the REDI School in Germany to certify migrant and refugee women using Networking Academy pathways. Women who achieve certification can access job openings within Cisco and across its partner ecosystem. This solution has been successfully deployed during the migrant crisis in 2015 and in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In Greece, an ongoing program, in partnership with Scientific College of Greece and KEDE (Federation of Greek Municipalities), aims to provide 200 candidates from 8 Greek municipalities (citizens and members of their administrations) with the chance to participate in a full cybersecurity certification pathway, free of charge.
In Turin, Italy, through our partnership with the municipality of Turin, the Cisco Networking Academy provided municipal workers with basic training in cybersecurity thanks to our Introduction to Cybersecurity course, bolstering the cyber-readiness of the local administration.
In Poland, the Cisco Networking Academy, together with its education partner, the University of Information Technology and Management (UITM), in Rzeszów, launched the Start IT – Cisco4Ukraine program to train 10,000 people over the next 2 years. It has been designed for Ukrainian refugees who want to build digital skills, reskill, or upskill.