Training Camp Expands Cisco CCNA Networking Training

PHILADELPHIA — 2001 — Demand for qualified networking staff has outrun the supply, and Training Camp has responded by expanding its Cisco CCNA boot camp.

The CCNA was the credential hiring managers named by itself. It certified associate-level networking skill on Cisco equipment, the routers and switches that carried traffic through most business networks at the time. Subnetting, configuring a router, setting up VLANs, and troubleshooting a switch that had stopped behaving were the everyday tasks it covered. Routing protocols, IP addressing, and the basics of network design rounded out the material. Cisco’s gear was so widespread that its certification became a practical standard for the whole job.

Around 2001 the number of networks was growing faster than the number of people qualified to run them. Employers wanted proof a candidate could actually configure and fix equipment, not just describe it. That made CCNA valuable, but it also made the exam unforgiving. It expected genuine command-line fluency, and there is no way to fake that on test day. For many technicians it was also the first rung toward the more advanced Cisco certifications that followed.

Training Camp built the course around lab time for exactly that reason. Students spent their days on real routers and switches, entering configurations, breaking things, and fixing them under an instructor’s eye. Compressing the material into a focused classroom week suited working technicians who needed the certification but could not disappear for months of evening classes.

“Hiring managers would tell us straight out, I need someone who can walk up to a router and configure it,” said Chris Porter, Chief Executive Officer. “You cannot teach that from slides alone. The lab time is the course.”

CCNA held its place as a starting point for networking careers well beyond that year. Expanding the boot camp let Training Camp meet a demand that employers were feeling acutely at the time.

About Training Camp: Training Camp delivers accelerated, exam-focused certification boot camps for IT and cybersecurity professionals, working with major certifying bodies to prepare individuals as well as corporate, government, and military teams.

Media Contact: Magnus Carter, mcarter@trainingcamp.com