Lakes College
Broadening Students' Horizons through the Cisco Networking Academy
Lakes College is a higher and further education college in West Cumbria. Offering a variety of academic and vocational qualifications, apprenticeships, access to higher education courses, higher education qualifications and foundation education programmes.
Summary
Challenges
Shifting qualifications
Diverse student needs
Budget constraints
Industry relevancy
Solutions
NetAcad Courses
Using Computer and Mobile Devices
Digital Awareness
Introduction to Cybersecurity
Introduction to Data Science
Data Analytics Essentials
Networking Essentials
Packet Tracer
Results
Students have access to industry technology, experiences & courses.
Students have newfound interview confidence.
The industry is keen to take on Students.
NetAcad’s simply blending in and supporting technical qualifications.
The Beginnings as a Cisco Academy
Lakes College is an FE College in West Cumbria with 900+ full time students in its 16-19 provision. The College also offers an HE provisions, through apprenticeships. They currently have circa 50 digital students, which is slowly growing over time.
Lakes College’s qualifications include Level 2 IT and Digital Support, Level 3 Networking, and the T Level Digital Support Services. They also recently joined forces with the Open University as a validation partner to write a digital degree.
They joined as a Cisco Academy in 2021, with Andrew Southam, Digital and Computing Lecturer, at the helm. They are supported by the Open University ASC, which was integral in helping them get the Academy off the ground and continuing to make the most of the Cisco Networking Academy courses and resources.
“Introducing NetAcad courses into various provisions has allowed students at Lakes to understand how the skills they learn in the classroom can be used and applied in an industry context.”
Andrew Southam, Digital and Computing Lecturer at Lakes College
Leveraging the Power of NetAcad
Soon after joining Lakes College, Andrew was keen to embed industry standard into the College’s various courses. He opted to join as a Cisco Academy, as the Cisco Networking Academy would allow him to embed industry knowledge into the classroom while also upskilling by using the resources as part of his own CPD.
Andrew started by offering the odd course to students in the first year, allowing them to trial various courses. In Year 2, Lakes College started to expand the Cisco Academy usage by aligning courses with core curriculum so that Andrew could teach alongside the NetAcad courses. Looking to the future, every student at Lakes College will have the opportunity to do foundational NetAcad courses such as Digital Awareness.
At Level 2, Lakes College focussed on the bitesize Introduction to Cybersecurity and Introduction to Data Science courses. For T-Levels, students followed the Networking Essentials course, including many hands-on Packet Tracer activities which helped bring the curriculum to life. Packet Tracer has also proved to be a useful tool when there are larger number of students in a class, as they can all get involved which may not be possible with physical equipment.
Introducing NetAcad courses into various provisions has allowed students at Lakes to understand how the skills they learn in the classroom can be used and applied in an industry context. Andrew shared that there was an enthusiastic uptake on NetAcad courses from students, as they were keen to bolster their CV and stand out from the crowd when applying to jobs.
Student Testimonials here