CISCO Academy Instructors: Phillips, Thomas

Good afternoon and thank you for your attendance at this press conference.

As the Minister of Government Estates and Information Services, I am delighted to welcome you to the Bermuda College on the occasion of Phase II of the establishment of the Bermuda Cisco Academy. I am truly indebted to the Board, President and staff of the Bermuda College for graciously providing and making this facility a very suitable site for the location of the Cisco laboratory.

We are here this afternoon to usher in Phase II of the establishment of such an Academy. Phase II encompasses the actual delivery of the Cisco Certified Network Associate, CCNA, programme. Recall that Phase I was launched at this very same site in May of this year, a mere four months ago.

At this Phase, I announced the commencement of the instructor training for the delivery of the CCNA programme. The successful completion of this phase has provided me with the opportunity to stand before you today to proudly present to you the two Bermudian candidates who successfully completed the Cisco instructor training for the CCNA programme. Please join me in congratulating A.W. Eugene Phillips and Lionel Jason Thomas. Well done gentlemen. Well done.

Eugene Phillips is an Information Technology professional with 23 years of experience in the field. He holds a Bachelor of Business Management and has professional certifications including Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional and Microsoft Certified Professional Technology Specialist.

He has served our local companies in several capacities including as a Programmer Analyst, a Systems Analyst and Programmer, a Senior Network Analyst, an Information Systems Manager, a Lotus Notes Developer and an Information Technology Manager. Mr. Phillips also gained teaching experience as a substitute teacher at The Berkeley Institute. Mr. Phillips will be engaged as the Senior Instructor for the Academy.

Lionel Jason Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. He has experience building highly interactive web applications and flash/action script development. His skills include a host of computer languages and software packages including Microsoft Office Suite, Oracle, Cisco, Server 2003, Mac OS and Solaris. Mr. Thomas will be engaged as the Junior Instructor for the Academy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I pause here not only to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Messrs.’ Phillips and Thomas once again but to provide some details to what they have achieved. To become certified as a Cisco instructor one must undergo an intensive and rigorous course of study.

This course of study collapses the four modules of the CCNA which is administered to students during the course of a full academic year into a 20 day grueling exercise. Each participant must successfully complete each of the four modules at a pass rate of 80% and continue to excel at this rate as the modules increase in difficulty as one progresses from module 1 to module 4.

I am extremely pleased, on behalf of the Government of Bermuda, to not only have provided these gentlemen with the opportunity to become certified as Cisco instructors for the CCNA programme but to now provide them with employment. My Ministry, the Ministry of Government Estates and Information Services, has engaged these gentlemen as the instructors for the first offering of the CCNA programme here in Bermuda.

I have no doubt that as we embark on this Phase II of this initiative that Messrs.’ Phillips and Thomas will experience a similar degree of success with their students as they experienced under the tutelage of Allison McIntyre. Recall that Ms. McIntyre is the Programme Coordinator of the HEART College of Innovation and Technology in Jamaica who guided these gentlemen towards their success as Cisco instructors.

Ladies and gentlemen, I now draw your attention to the candidates who successfully applied to participate in this CCNA programme as students, some of whom are in attendance today. We were indeed overwhelmed by the response to our offering as we had a total of 50 persons apply to become Cisco students.

Today, I am here to confirm this Government’s commitment to the 37 candidates who were accepted as students. Successful students had a minimum of a two-year degree, IT certifications or had passed the College Placement Test administered by the Bermuda College. These students are now poised to begin the process of securing the Cisco Certified Network Associate designation. I wish them every success as upon completion they will be better positioned to secure employment in this fascinating field of Information Technology. I might also add that our intention is to reach to the persons who were not successful and to assist them in realizing their aspirations of becoming Cisco students.

In closing, I must reiterate my gratitude to the Hon. D. Neletha Butterfield, JP, who as Minister of Public Information Services, first committed to this initiative, Allison McIntyre, the Programme Coordinator of the HEART College of Innovation and Technology who provided guidance to the Steering Committee and also served as the instructor to the instructors, Orbis Investment Management Limited who underwrote the cost of instruction to the instructors, Dr. Duranda Greene and her staff at the Bermuda College and finally to my Steering Committee led by Director Michael Oatley.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you a good afternoon.

Thank you.

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