Women in the Cisco Middle East Networking Academy Program March 2007 Cisco’s Position Cisco and the Cisco Learning Institute (CLI) partnered in April 2000 to develop the Gender Initiative. The goal of this project is to increase females' access to IT training and career opportunities, combat the gender division of labor, and prevent women from being channeled into lower-paying jobs. The Gender Initiative seeks to provide women with the IT skills necessary to meet the increasing demands of the Internet economy. The Initiative has been implemented globally through the Networking Academy program and through targeted gender projects in partnership with several international organizations. Cisco Gender Initiative Goals • Increase the number of females pursuing academic and career opportunities in IT worldwide • Increase females’ access to IT training and career opportunities • Utilize Academy program as a model / gender laboratory • Collect and share information on best practice recruitment and retention strategies • Develop tools and resources to attract and retain more females to IT The Cisco Networking Academy Program – Impact figures • • •

Worldwide Participation – 18% women (87,992F enrolled) European Female Participation - 9% women (11,000F enrolled) Emerging Female Participation – 21% women (32,000F enrolled)

Middle East Snapshot– female participation as a percentage of total students currently enrolled: • Afghanistan – 31% • Algeria -30% • Egypt – 24% • Jordan – 32% • Morocco -31% • Oman – 37% • United Arab Emirates – 37% *Stats as of Feb 2007

Gender Initiative: Partnerships and Initiatives •

Women in Technology – sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), with grants from the dot-GOV Program of Internews Network. This initiative awards scholarships to women to attend the Networking Academy Program. More than 500 scholarships have been awarded to women in Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

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United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - Cisco collaborates with UNIFEM and USAID to implement a number of gender programs in the Middle East. Together we have established schemes such as the E-Parite project in Morocco to encourage and retain female participation in the program.

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Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) – in FY06 five female business professionals from the Middle East were invited to work at Cisco and thereby experience a different country and culture. Women from Morocco, Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, and Israel completed a one-month business course and then began working in diverse roles across Cisco. MEPI was designed to work with the people and governments of the Arab world to increase political, economic and educational opportunities for people in the region.

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Least Developed Countries Initiative (LDC) -During the past five years, the LDC Initiative has offered valuable IT education to more than 35,000 students, approximately 30 percent of them female. An effort to bridge the digital divide between developed and least-developed countries, this initiative was a result of the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan, in 2000. Cisco has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to offer training through our Networking Academy sites in 51 developing countries. In FY06, a principal focus was on gender –this remains a critical area of endeavor in FY07.

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Cisco Learning Institute (CLI) – In collaboration with CLI, we have developed a toolkit to support growth and sustainability of the Cisco Networking Academy Program in LDCs. The PLAN IT Toolkit features a Gender Toolkit, available to all academies, designed to support the enrollment and retention of female students.

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International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - ITU launched the Internet Training Centers (ITCs) Initiative to provide access to affordable IT training in developing countries in May 2001.

The same year, Cisco partnered with ITU to contribute the Cisco Networking Academy Program to 50 ITCs in developing countries. The project goals are to train 50 CCNA students per institution annually, to achieve 30 percent female enrollment, and to strengthen the Internet and networking skills of the staff within national telecommunications companies. In 2006 Cisco and ITU announced they would offer 100 scholarships to women and girls for IT Essentials at Cisco Networking Academies – these scholarships are now being rolled out across academies in the Middle East and Africa. 55 female scholarships were granted to 3 ITU-Cisco academies in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen as follows; • • •

20 ITU-CLI gender scholarships were granted to GTI (General Telecom Institute) in Yemen and classes will start by the beginning of April 2007 20 ITU-CLI gender scholarships were granted to TTC (Telecom Training Center) in Afghanistan and classes started on February 15 2007 20 ITU-CLI gender scholarships were granted to ICT (Institute of Communications Technologies) and classes started on February 26 2007

News and Case studies The World’s First Gender Regional Academy Opens in Pakistan The Networking Academy Program Instructor Newsletter – Multicast – June 2006 In May 2006 the first female Regional Academy was inaugurated in Lahore, Pakistan. One of the oldest female institutions in Pakistan, Lahore College for Women (LCW) opened its doors to its first students in 1922, and now has more than 6,500 women enrolled on intermediate, degree and postgraduate courses. Humaira Alvi, the Legal Main Contact at LCW, reports that the nature of work and demand for skills are changing in Pakistan and employment opportunities for women with IT skills are greater now than ever before. “Until the near past, women had employment opportunities only in limited fields,” she says. However, with the passage of time, the behavior of society has changed. Organizations today are increasingly striving to induct more women in their workplaces. Ambassador Praises ‘Gender Academy’ in Morocco CEC Posting Date: 2007-Feb-13 The E-Parite gender initiative continues to draw praise and support this month, with an official visit to Morocco’s Errachidia Academy by US Ambassador Thomas T. Riley.

Mr Riley’s visit to the Academy in South Eastern Morocco on February 6 was covered by local press and has been described by project coordinator, Omar Rhoulami, as a “complete success.” Errachidia is one of Networking Academies involved in the E-Parite scheme, launched by US aid agency USAID and Cisco in 2004. The scheme, which also draws on support from the United Nations Fund for Women, UNIFEM, was set up to promote the participation of women in ICT training and in the ICT industry. The academy, which is located in the South East of Morocco, 500 km from the capital Rabat, has trained some 135 students in CCNA over the last two years. Of these students, an impressive 60% have been women. Ambassador Riley had praise for the academy itself and the E-Parite scheme in general and was quoted as saying that the success of the partnership between USAID, Cisco, UNIFEM and the government is leading to generalizing the project components (Cisco training, soft skills, job placement unit) to all national institutions in the country.

Success Story - Saïda Aït Mamma, Morocco Collaborating for success A project that is jointly run by the Networking Academy program and UNIFEM is Morocco’s E-Parite project, designed to encourage girls and women into ICT tuition and to support them by providing soft skills training for jobs. One Local Academy in Morocco that has been successfully participating in the project is ENSET Mohammedia Academy, where students are being prepared to enter the job market with a full and enviable skill set. In addition to the networking know-how they acquire as Cisco Networking Academy graduates, ENSET students are also offered soft skills training as they prepare to enter the workforce. One of the CCNA graduates to have emerged from the E-Parite project at ENSET is Saïda Aït Mamma. Saïda successfully completed her CCNA studies in 2006 and as a result she has found a great job as technical assistant with Pericles, one of Morocco’s foremost ICT companies. Saïda is now looking forward to a rewarding career in an industry that has typically been dominated by men: “It is true that my Cisco training has been a big plus for finding a job. I won’t forget all the things I have learnt thanks to this project, from the Cisco training to the soft skills workshop.

“When I enrolled for the CCNA training at the institute, I didn’t realize how much I would really benefit from these courses.”

Dubai Women’s College Dubai Women’s College has been running the Cisco Networking Academy program through its Higher Diploma Computer Networking program since 2001. In 2002 we introduced the Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP) curriculum into the Bachelor’s degree element of the same program. Over 100 UAE female students have graduated from the program to date. Our graduates are employed in positions within government and private organizations such as: Dubai Duty Free, Dubai Municipality, DEWA, Dubai Transport, Emirates Group, Commercial Bank of Dubai, National Bank of Dubai, WiPro, eTQM, Dubai Holding, Dubai Mercantile Exchange, Barclays Bank, HSBC and more. To complement the academic elements within the program, the College also organises and runs a number of industry-related projects, activities and initiatives. These have included: • • • • •

International field trip to the Academy Conference – Denmark One of our students participated in the Academy conference – Johannesburg DWC Bazaar 2002 (Internet Café) DWC Bazaar 2004 (Mitrash - Wireless home shop, with Linksys, please refer to the online best practices story on your MENA Web site) DWC Bazaar 2005 (FunTech – Wireless business, with Linksys, Cosmos).

Dubai Women’s College/Linksys Project This project is aimed at increasing ICT awareness amongst the student community whilst providing work experience for participating students. It will be a joint initiative with Linksys and is currently under discussion. Phase one will involve creating a digital home and small business (SOHO) network for demonstration purposes on the College campus. Students will be invited to participate in setting up the network and familiarise themselves with the products used. In the second phase, the aim is to set up a virtual ‘store’ at the College, with students actively selling Linksys products to customers. Linksys and its suppliers will provide the products on a loan basis, billable once the products have been sold.

There will also be an opportunity for students to find part-time jobs as retail sales assistants at Linksys outlets in Dubai. Linksys will offer the students training and a certificate. This project is modeled on a successful pilot scheme in the UK where many students have gained valuable hands-on experience not only in building and maintaining networks, but also of the retail industry and dealing with customers. We hope to replicate this success and offer our students the chance to acquire valuable skills as they enter the job market.