By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | November 01, 2009
Rodney Guenther, a Cisco certified instructor teaches an Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices class to unemployed workers at the Solano Employment Connection building in Vallejo. The class, which normally costs $3500, was offered for free to qualified workers through a partnerhsip of the Solano County Workfoce Investment Boar, Cisco, Skyline Advanced Technology Services and Techsponential. Photo by Chris Jordan
VALLEJO - Add Cisco Systems to the list of groups working to retrain displaced workers in Solano County.
The technology giant and its partner Skyline Advanced Technology Services were behind a recent pilot program in Vallejo that offered unemployed residents a chance to get the training and certification to enter the information technology sector.
'There is this huge amount of talented people that don't have the IT skills right now and at the same time you have got IT demand for skilled employees,' said Tejas Vashi, senior manager for Cisco.
The week-long 'Techsponential' program prepares students to take the exam to receive the Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician designation. The backgrounds of attendees varied, with some coming from part-time IT jobs and others being art majors, Vashi said.
The training seminar took place at the Vallejo office of the Solano County Workforce Investment Board, which has played host to an increasing number of job training events as of late.
'With the economic stimulus money, we have embarked on expanding our training programs,' executive director Robert Bloom said.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.
