Seventeen students from The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Alafua Campus in Samoa have successfully graduated from the Cisco Networking Academy.
In his keynote address, Professor Mohammed Umar, Head of the School of Agriculture & Food Technology (SAFT) and acting Campus Director, said the first USP Alafua Cisco cohort started in 2011 comprising 25 students who were largely Information Communication Technology (ICT) engineers, Information Technology (IT) managers, systems and network administrators and technicians from local internet service providers and various computer companies including government ministries and corporations.
Professor Umar said, USP – Cisco programme was started at the Alafua Campus by non-other than Le Mamea Sia Matalavea, who is Head of IT programmes at the Campus.
In 2017, 27 students enrolled out of which 17 successfully completed the four courses and received the final certificate (CCNA4 – Connecting Networks).
According to Professor Umar, Cisco is a tough programme and students have to achieve 70 per cent for both the skills exams and the final exams.
“I must congratulate all the graduating students and their instructors for achieving this milestone. One of the drivers of change projecting in 2024 is digital technology. So this programme is extremely important to prepare students with the necessary knowledge and skills to design, build, maintain and troubleshoot computer networks at various organisations and institutions,” he stated.
Furthermore, Professor Umar noted that with the recent arrival of the Tui Samoa submarine cable and fast growing ICT development within Samoa including the development of better, faster and more resilient network systems and infrastructure, they now have great opportunities for lending in highly paid employment.
“You should remember that with advances in IT the world has become a small place and networking of scientists is crucial to solve world problems,” he added.
Professor Umar wished the graduates well, and hoped they would continue to contribute significantly to the development of Samoa and its people.
Cisco is a company founded in 1984 by two computer scientists from Stanford University seeking an easier way to connect different types of computer systems. Cisco Systems is now a multi-national corporation, with over 35,000 employees in more than 115 countries and is a worldwide leader in IT and networking.
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