In May, the Turkish Ministry of National Education’s Technology Department and the Turkish Informatics Foundation announced their intention to open 21 new Cisco Networking Academies in high schools this year and 200 more over the next five years, on top of the 50 that already exist. Cisco’s move follows its announcement last September to invest US$275 million in Turkey over five years, with the money going to help improve country development using IT, an innovation centre and an entrepreneurship institute, leasing, finance, education and staffing.

The investment was unveiled by John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, during a visit to Central and Eastern Europe in which he met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss improving Turkey’s competitiveness on the global stage.

Technology Powerhouse

Turkey is well placed to become a technology powerhouse. In recent years its economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the world thanks to strong industrial and services sectors, which account for more than a fifth and two-thirds of output respectively. She already has one of the 20 largest economies on the planet and Turkish organisations such as Garanti Bank and the Istanbul Police Department lead the way globally in the use of ICT.

Garanti, for example, last year upgraded its data centre network, which is based on Cisco storage area networking, data centre switching and integrated security technology. The new data centre network infrastructure helps Garanti to handle expanding requirements stemming from areas such as multi-channel banking and the need to comply with banking regulations.

Meanwhile, the Istanbul Police Department has attracted interest for its MOBESE (Mobile Electronic Systems Integration) information and security system, in which 700 surveillance cameras, linked via a Cisco network, have been positioned at strategic points around the city.

And yet, for Turkey to maintain its economic growth and build an IT industry to complement its already vibrant electronics sector, she will need more than 40,000 network technology specialists this year, according to research by IDC.

Hence the buzz surrounding initiatives to boost skills teaching in the country.

Cisco Networking Academy

Cisco, which first established operations in Turkey in 1996, launched its first Networking Academy three years later at the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey’s Turkish Academic Network and Information Centre (TÜBITAK ULAKBIM) in the capital, Ankara. Since then, the number of academies has grown to 50, around 6,500 students have enrolled on academy courses and more than 5,800 have graduated.

The announcement made by Cisco in May at a press conference attended by Nizami Aktürk, General Manager of the Ministry of National Education Technology Department, will see that number increase dramatically. Speaking at the press conference, Aktürk said: “We are starting the education programme in 21 high schools that specialise in informatics education. Our aim is to complete the infrastructure in more schools over time and to train teachers extensively…Students who receive this education will be trained in information and network technologies at international level and will be equipped with the skills to manage devices of any brand.”

SPARK: IT skills delivery

In addition, Cisco is also supporting the delivery of IT skills through its backing of a community volunteering project called SPARK, which kicked off this year. Similar to the Neta initiative which has been running in Israel since 2003, SPARK aims to give vulnerable young people the opportunity to gain technical skills that they can use to gain a foothold in the employment market, helping to bring prosperity to their communities.

In its first year, SPARK will covers 100 16-to-26-year-olds from the Turkish cities of Ankara, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli and Yalova, offering two-year courses based on the Networking Academy IT Essentials 1 and CCNA curricula. The project relies on volunteer instructors and free lab access, provided by Local Networking Academies. The Turkish Informatics Foundation will coordinate the scheme, working alongside Youth for Habitat, an international youth network. The United Nations Development Programme, which already supports the Networking Academy programme in Turkey, is helping to fund SPARK along with Cisco.

Istanbul Technical University has organised a summer camp to train instructors at two other universities - the Gebze Institute of High Technology and Dokuz Eylul University - which have agreed to provide volunteers and lab facilities.

John Edwards, Director of the Networking Academy programme in Europe and the emerging markets, says: “Turkey is in the midst of a major transformation initiative which will require a massive injection of networking and advanced technology skills…The Networking Academy programme and affiliated schemes such as SPARK will be critical in helping to deliver the skilled workforce that the country needs in order to sustain the growth of its IT and other technology-related industries.”

This article has been provided courtesy of Cisco Systems. To find out more about Cisco in developing and emerging markets visit www.cisco.com

Jason Deign is a freelance journalist and writer based in Barcelona.