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Communications Workers and Cisco Systems Announce High-Tech Training Partnership

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12-The Communications Workers of America and Cisco Systems announced a partnership to provide high-tech skills training to military veterans, as part of a "Military to Work" pilot program partially funded by the Labor Department, as well to other workers through CWA retraining and apprenticeship programs.

Cisco and CWA announced the partnership at today's "21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs" summit hosted by Vice President Gore, where the federal Military to Work program was spotlighted as one of 19 success stories in the area of skill training.

Two other programs involving joint CWA-employer training programs also were cited among the success stories at the summit-"The Alliance," a training trust at AT&T and Lucent Technologies involving CWA and the Electrical Workers, and the CWA-US West "Pathways to the Future" program.

Of the new partnership with Cisco, CWA President Morton Bahr stated: "Cisco's training programs and certification standards are simply the state of the art in the information technology field, and we're excited about working together to build the high-skilled workforce for the Internet age of communications."

The Military to Work program is designed to help find jobs for the more than 20,000 vets with telecommunications or computer networking experience who leave the service each year.

Through on-line skills assessment testing developed by CWA and Cisco, veterans who qualify will be matched with jobs at major telecom and high-tech companies. Those who don't initially qualify will be referred to appropriate training sources, which may include CWA pre-apprenticeship programs or Cisco Academy Certification programs.

Employers currently using the CWA Military to Work program, which include AT&T, Lucent, Bell Atlantic, SBC, US West and others, report a desperate need for thousands of qualified entry level as well as experienced technicians. And Cisco estimates that 1.8 million direct high-tech jobs will be created in the next five years.

CWA foresees a need to retrain and upgrade the skills of thousands of today's telecommunications workers in the next few years to keep up with new technology, and the union will start using Cisco training to enhance existing and future retraining programs negotiated with major employers as well as in its communications apprenticeship programs.

"The most valuable technicians in the future will be those who have experience both with voice communications as well as data networking, so they can help put all the pieces together in this converging information industry," said CWA President Bahr. "CWA and Cisco are uniquely positioned to train and help place these high-skilled workers."

CWA represents approximately 630,000 members in the telecommunications industry, broadcasting and cable TV, publishing, journalism, airline passenger service and other fields.

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