Cisco has started a partner apprentice programme.
The pilot programme will see an intake of 15 students work with five partners and the vendor over a three-year degree apprenticeship programme, with a view to giving them chances to get experience across the various elements of the industry.
If that pilot goes smoothly, the plan is to roll out the full programme in October and take the number of students up to 30.
The over all idea is to help the channel attract the next generation of talent and ease the skills gap.
Cisco MD Angela Whitty said that Cisco was a “partner-first” organisation and wanted to create a value exchange in its ecosystem.
“There are always the challenges around skills and the skills gap we’re all struggling from, so if there’s something we can do to help to feed that skills gap, then obviously we’re really keen to do it”, she said.
“We are going to take a group of young people who are employed by our partners, but we’ll go through the same training as our apprentices,” said Whitty. “A big chunk of that is funded by us via our apprentice levy.”
