About
Birmingham City University (formally the Technology Innovation Centre at The University of Central England) has been a member of the Cisco Networking Academy Program since 1998. Formally the UK's CATC, we provided instructor training and academy support across the UK to some 130 academies at the peak. From the launch of CCNP in 2001, BCU was also the CATC for the CCNP Program within EMEA and has provided CCNP instructor training across Europe, Russia, Israel, Dubai and South Africa.
With over 40 man years of experience within the team, we are well placed to serve the Cisco Networking Academy going forward.
Our computing courses have been recognised in a national review undertaken by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and a report by the British Computer Society congratulated us for our "support and monitoring" of students.
The Team
- Ron Austin - Operations lead and Instructor
- Richard Smith - Instructor and Support lead
- Phill Harris - Instructor
Academy Support Centre
With a long history of being a CATC, RA and LA we have a great deal of knowledge and experience in all aspects of the academy program.
Our support services are designed to help you through all stages of the journey from starting out as a new academy, through growing and expanding to becoming an established provider of academy courses.
In the early stages there are lots of decisions to be made on which courses, integration, class layout, cabling, scheduling, additional equipment, procurement, charging, training etc and we can help with it all. We have even been out and built a PNIE lab for one academy.
Our team of dedicated staff ensure that there is almost always someone available to take the call or respond to the email as you have a burning request or query.
New academy on-boarding
Instructor Training Centre
All of the teaching staff are ITQ qualified and industry certified in the courses they teach. With two dedicated instructor training rooms, brimming with all the up to date equipment, we are confident you will learn a great deal, pass the course and most importantly, leave feeling confident to teach the curricula.
Traditional in person instructor training is now complimented with blended*, remote* and fast track options for the whole range of courses offered through the academy program.
Most of the instructors have been involved with the design, content and assessments of the new courses and hence are fully conversant with all the latest developments.
All of the courses are supported by additional resources such as video lectures.
10 minutes from the center of Birmingham we are with easy reach of the National Rail Network and Birmingham International Airport.
(*when permitted)