Alfonse Moses Opira
24
Uganda

Securing a Future: How the Cisco Networking Academy Program Allowed Alfonse to Stay Ahead of the Competition and in Work

“Because of the program, my employer is able to put enormous confidence in me to carry out my duties promptly and efficiently.”

Getting a job and keeping it is often a problem in Uganda, even for well-qualified young IT professionals. In order to make ends meet you have to be determined, flexible, highly competitive, and be prepared to grab any opportunity that comes your way with both hands.

One young man who has done just this is Alfonse Moses Opira. At just 24, he has a part-time job as an ICT Engineer, he runs his own family Internet café business in Kitgum, and even finds the time to take on additional projects for friends and family, with whom he has a well-deserved reputation.

His areas of speciality are structured cabling, LAN installations, Internet connectivity using various technologies, router configurations, WiFi, WiMAX solutions, Linux solutions, to name but a few. Expertise that gives him the edge in a country where as Alfonse himself acknowledges, jobs can be “hard to find and harder to keep”.

Early on, Alfonse knew that he would have to stand out from his classmates if he was going to capitalise on his university studies. He recalls:

“I chose to study on the Networking Academy Program mainly to make myself more marketable, improve my networking knowledge and skills and most importantly, to boost my chances of getting a job. I wanted to get an upper hand (over my course mates) of securing a job the moment I graduated in Telecommunications Engineerin”.

Splitting your time between different projects, all with their own unique demands requires more than just a wide knowledge of networking. The extra edge and confidence you need comes from depth of knowledge and hard-learned experience. As Alfonse says himself:

“The Networking Academy Program not only helped me in getting a job but also assisted me in understanding many of the things that we studied in my degree course as a result of the many labs we did and through asking our instructor questions”.

His story shows that even in trying economic circumstances, the right training can make all the difference to securing a bright future.

What advice would Alfonse give to other young people looking for a job in IT?

“Enroll on a CCNA course today if you want to improve your networking knowledge, skills and chances of securing an IT job. Many employers today make CCNA a pre-requisite qualification in the IT field.

As a result of having done CCNA and gone through the Academy program, my confidence to do the jobs assigned to me has been boosted and I know that even if I were to lose my job, I can always find a way of making ends meet.”.