On April 16 MEPhI has hosted a forum for instructors of Cisco academies in the framework of an International conference “Modern IT education: best international practices”. The event was dedicated to implementation of a program of Networking Academy Cisco in universities and schools in Russia, and was organized in order to promote cooperation between teachers of Networking Academy, involve new educational institutions in the program, as well as to discuss issues of promotion of IT education in Russia.

The seminar was attended by about 200 representatives of educational institutions from 58 cities of Russia, representing 128 Cisco Networking Academies, as well as teachers from schools of the Moscow region, working in an academic program or interested in it.

It's no coincidence that the MEPhI was chosen to host the forum. The first Cisco Networking Academy in Russia was opened in MEPhI in 1999. Last year the University in conjunction with Cisco held the Interregional Olympiad on networking technologies, which was attended by over 1500 students across Russia. At the moment MEPhI is working on forming IT training of students in programs of Networking Academy that is an experiment relative to other universities.

According to the Head of the MEPhI Department of pedagogy L.N. Dukhanina, preparation of highly qualified IT professionals should begin at school. She cited the example of an effective project which is being implemented in the University – Network school of MEPhI, in which there are more than 300 schools of different regions. “As a head of the Department of pedagogy and methods of science education, I am extremely interested in the fact that high school students could first complete practice-oriented courses within the MEPhI Network school before choosing a future profession, and then only then make a conscious choice to develop in the IT area”, she said.

The final word in the greeting was inviting guests to an interesting event – Day of girls in ICT, organized by MEPhI in collaboration with Cisco on the 23rd of April 2015 at the school “Naslednik” for pupils of Moscow schools. The event is of a vocational nature. Its goal is to show school girls career opportunities in the IT field. Girls will have a unique opportunity to communicate with representatives of IT industry and ask them questions about work in the field which is traditionally considered to be male one.

On behalf of the Cisco Russian branch attendees were welcomed by a distinguished engineer-consultant M. Kader and Program Manager of Cisco Networking Academy in Russia D. Razumovsky. They shared their thoughts about issues related to the preparation of IT specialist, and spoke about the educational programs of Cisco Networking Academy.

At the end of the seminar there was a ceremony of awarding the best Cisco Networking Academies in Russia.