Cisco Networking Academy is celebrating 25 years of teaching the learners who join the world. This is one story that illustrates the ability of partnerships for an inclusive future for all.
As a younger man, Matt O’Bryan aspired to be knowledgeable golfer, but it surely was a dream he placed on maintain when he was called-on to run the household enterprise.
While gamers usually are not averse to new expertise, golf is basically a person sport, so it’s considerably stunning that the success of KLA Laboratories below Matt will not be solely because of its embrace of latest expertise, but additionally that the enterprise thrives on teamwork and partnerships.
Tech stalwart
KLA Laboratories could have been based in 1929, however cutting-edge tech was all the time its core enterprise, together with radio transmission, antenna reception, voice replica, information assortment, and timekeeping programs—it even went on to put in gear for Hitsville USA, the Motown Recording Studios. As early because the Nineteen Seventies, KLA began putting in Broadband Local Area Networks for the automotive trade.
But working with the automotive trade additionally means dealing with its ups and downs, and with the 2008 international monetary disaster, the trade was adversely affected. Matt says that auto firms represented round 75% of KLA’s enterprise on the time.
“That really kicked-into high gear the diversification of our business lines and customer base,” he says. Partially this diversification has come about geographically—KLA now has a bodily presence in Dearborn, Michigan Las Vegas, Nevada and Irvine, California. Arguably an even bigger half is all the way down to enterprise acumen.
Networking specialists
“KLA had been a leader in installing networks,” says Matt. “The fiber optic cabling, the copper cabling, and we would install Cisco switches and routers and APs, but we wouldn’t configure them or be able to stand up an entire network, it would just be the physical layer-1 portion of it from an install standpoint.”
“We had an opportunity to provide a proof-of-concept of how we could do a full network deployment, including all the cabling, and that went very well. And we knew things would snowball and we would be able to grow that part of our business,” says Matt. “It was really a pivotal change of what KLA did at the time. We have dozens of people in that part of the business now, over the last 10 or 12 years.”
Recruiting expertise
How these roles had been stuffed got here all the way down to an opportunity assembly with a Cisco Networking Instructor from Matt’s alma-mater, Henry Ford College.
“We wanted to build a career path for those folks in that area of the company,” he says, “and it just seemed great to be able to pick up people and set up an internship program at Henry Ford College and start them at KLA.”
It helps to have expertise that matches with KLA’s company tradition. Todd Browning, Networking Academy Instructor at Henry Ford College, says “when I look for students to recommend for internships at KLA, I look for students who are honest and have good communication and interpersonal skills, along with the desire to learn new things and the drive to solve problems. Network troubleshooting can be stressful, and I try to teach our students to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.”
KLA now employs 32 individuals who have gone by the Cisco Networking Academy program and internships with the corporate. “Many of them will come in and do network support or deployment, but we have many facets of our company, so one day they might be working in a manufacturing plant, the next day at a stadium or arena, hotel, or airport, it’s really one of the things that I think keeps our employees satisfied, the fact that they don’t know where they’re going to be working one day to the next, so it always keeps it interesting. I think that really helps,” says Matt, explaining the corporate’s negligible turnover.
“To see former students obtain career positions at KLA and get promoted to special teams and watch them grow in their career path is the ultimate example of a successful graduate,” says Todd. “How does it feel? My vocabulary cannot describe it and money cannot buy it! It’s a great feeling!”
Moving with the occasions
Having college students with up-to-date data helps within the fast-moving tech sector. Matt explains that in solely a decade or so, broadband WiFi has gone from being “nice to have” to an expectation.
“We’re seeing stadiums and arenas where you have 65,000 fans and all of them have devices and are on their devices all the time,” he says.
“We’ve just completed our third network upgrade in the last seven or eight years at a 65,000- seat arena in Detroit. It’s a very large Cisco network. When the technology came out in 2012, when we first put it in, it was an access point for every 250 fans. Now it’s down to about 40. So we have tripled or quadrupled the number of access points in the stadium!”
And Matt sees a brilliant future within the auto enterprise with growing funding in manufacturing for electrical autos. Installing networks for automation programs in factories “is a big part of what we do every day here at KLA. That has changed too. And it’s going to change even more with Private LTE networks. There are new networks coming out that are very secure,” he says. “The future really is going to be exciting with some of these new networks and new technologies coming out.”
Giving again
With the success of the partnership with Networking Academy, and the corporate doing properly, in 2015 Matt instituted the KLA Technology Scholarship “as a way of giving back, both as an alma-mater myself—it’s in our community, we’re Dearborn-based, Henry Ford College is in Dearborn—and just to be able to help students who may not be able to afford it,” says Matt. “We really wanted to give back, and that was really the idea behind it when we originally started it. And still is. It’s the right thing to do.”
Todd reckons working with KLA is “like winning the lottery.”
“I’m so grateful and thankful to work with such an amazing company and group of people at KLA,” says Todd. “I appreciate everything that KLA and the O’Bryan family has done to support the Cisco Academy at Henry Ford College, including the endowment scholarship, providing additional equipment and technology into our Cisco labs for students use, the willingness of their industry experts to come into our classrooms as guest speakers/lectures, hosting tours at KLA’s Tech Center, and the countless employment opportunities offered to our students. Partnering with KLA is truly awesome!”
“Working with the Cisco Academy has been just a wonderful partnership, and it truly is a partnership—it works both ways. Our company is better because of the students we have gotten that have gone through the program,” says Matt. “I’m here to sing the program’s praises really, because it’s been a wonderful thing and a wonderful relationship for KLA.”
Meet a few of the Cisco Networking Academy alumni who’ve made their careers at KLA Laboratories
Ahmed
After being laid-off from a producing job, Ahmed knew he wanted a change of profession, and Cisco Networking Academy was the important thing to a new future as a IoT Engineer working primarily on industrial networks.
Ali
Despite having a bachelor’s diploma in Mathematics, as a brand new immigrant Ali discovered himself working as a pizza supply driver. He knew that training was key, and attained CCNA and CCNP accreditation and now works as an engineer at KLA Laboratories.
Lori
Lori didn’t have a lot IT expertise, however might see the potential for a profession in tech. With the assistance of Networking Academy, Lori is now primarily centered on the design, configuration, and surveying of wi-fi networks on a number of large-scale tasks throughout completely different industries for KLA Laboratories.
Mary
Re-entering the workforce after beginning a household, Mary envisioned making use of her building and undertaking administration abilities within the tech sector. After finishing her Networking Academy research she is an IT Project Manager in Network Services at KLA Laboratories.
About Networking Academy at Henry Ford College
The Computer Networking Academy at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, supplies college students with the talents for designing, constructing, and sustaining laptop networks. The program additionally prepares college students for the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) trade certification.
Cisco certifications are constantly rated among the many most extremely valued certifications inside the IT trade by each employers and IT professionals.
The CCNA certificates program consists of 4 programs and is designed to be accomplished inside one yr with a Fall begin date. Students discover ways to set up and configure Cisco routers, switches, wi-fi gadgets, and safety home equipment in multiprotocol native and huge space networks, carry out fundamental troubleshooting, and enhance community efficiency and safety.
The first two CCNA programs are additionally a part of the required core programs for the Associate of Applied Science in Cybersecurity and all 4 programs are required for the Associate of Applied Science in Network Administration.
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