Cisco Networking Academy
Ready to fast-track your career? Explore our free online Cisco tech courses.
Whether you’re curious about tech or ready to build your career, develop fundamental skills that will make you an in-demand professional across areas like Cybersecurity, Networking, Python, and Data Science.
Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet is an official partner with Cisco Networking Academy, the globally recognised IT skills and career-building programme, which has empowered over 20 million individuals with fundamental tech skills.
We offer access to a range of free online tech courses in cybersecurity, AI, data science, operating systems, IT, networking and professional skills. These courses are delivered online and can be taken at your own pace, making them suitable for whatever stage you are at in your tech career journey. Upon successfully completing a course, you will receive a branded Cisco Certificate of Completion, making it easy to show employers and your network your new skills and knowledge.
Why join a Cisco Networking Academy course?
- Free, online and on-demand courses in growing tech areas
- Learn at your own pace and in your own time
- Receive industry-recognised certification
- All courses are developed by technology experts
- Demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning to employers
Am I eligible?
To be eligible, you must currently be a resident in the Republic of Ireland. These courses are open to both employed and unemployed individuals.
How to apply?
Scroll down to view the courses on offer. Find the course that you are most interested in and use the form to submit your application. Once your application has been reviewed, we will share access to the course on the Cisco Networking Academy portal. Please feel free to register for multiple courses.
Cisco Networking Academy Courses Available
We currently offer access to over 25 courses across the below areas. Scroll down or click on a course area to view the courses available.
Cybersecurity Courses
Cybersecurity professionals who can protect and defend an organisation’s network are in high-demand right now. Put your detective-like qualities to work by gaining knowledge toward a career in fighting cybercrime.
This introductory course takes you inside the world of cybersecurity. You will learn cybersecurity basics to protect your personal digital life and gain insights into the biggest security challenges companies, governments, and educational institutions face today. Cybersecurity professionals who can protect and defend an organisation’s network are in high demand.
Duration: 6 hours
Learning Areas
- Intro to Cybersecurity
- Attacks, Concepts and Techniques
- Protecting Data and Privacy
- Protecting the Organisation
Develop advanced knowledge that you will use in the workplace as a Junior Cybersecurity Analyst. This course explores governance in cybersecurity and threat management. Learn to develop policies and ensure your organization complies with ethics standards and legal and regulatory frameworks. You will also gain skills for managing threats, such as how to assess a network for vulnerabilities, manage risks, and respond to security incidents.
Duration: 16 hours
Learning Areas
- Governance and Compliance
- Network Security Testing
- Threat Intelligence
- Endpoint Vulnerability Assessment
- Risk Management and Security Controls
- Digital Forensics and Incident Analysis and Response
Gain the foundational knowledge you will use in the workplace as a Junior Cybersecurity Analyst. In this course, you will learn how to assess the network, operating systems, and endpoints for vulnerabilities, and how to secure the network. You will also gain skills to maintain the integrity, confidentiality, and availability in your network and your data.
Duration: 27 hours
Learning Areas
- Cybersecurity Threats, Vulnerabilities and Attacks
- Securing Networks
- Wireless Network Communiction
- Network Security Infrastructure
- System and Endpoint Protection
- Cybersecurity Principles, Practices and Processes
This course is designed to prepare you with an Ethical Hacker skillset and give you a solid understanding of offensive security. You will become proficient in the art of scoping, executing, and reporting on vulnerability assessments, while recommending mitigation strategies. Follow an engaging gamified narrative throughout the course and get lots of practice with hands-on labs inspired by real-world scenarios.
Duration: 70 hours
Learning Areas
- Introduction to Penetration Testing
- Planning and Scoping a Penetration Testing Assessment
- Information Gathering and Vulnerability Scanning
- Social Engineering Attacks
- Exploiting Wired and Wireless Networks
- Exploiting Application-Based Vulnerabilities
- Cloud, Modile and IoT Security
- Performing Post-Exploitation Techniques
- Reporting and Communication
- Tools and Code Analysis
Gain the intermediate knowledge you will use in the workplace as a Junior Cybersecurity Analyst. This course covers ways to monitor your network and how to evaluate security alerts. Delve into the tools and techniques used to protect a network, including access control, firewalls, cloud security, and cryptography. These monitoring and defense tools, along with others, work together to create a layered defense-in-depth cybersecurity strategy. The knowledge and skills that you learn will help you defend networks against many types of attacks and quickly react to any exploits that may occur.
Duration: 70 hours
Learning Areas
- Introduction to Penetration Testing
- Planning and Scoping a Penetration Testing Assessment
- Information Gathering and Vulnerability Scanning
- Social Engineering Attacks
- Exploiting Wired and Wireless Networks
- Exploiting Application-Based Vulnerabilities
- Cloud, Modile and IoT Security
- Performing Post-Exploitation Techniques
- Reporting and Communication
- Tools and Code Analysis
Register for a free Cisco cybersecurity course
Networking Courses
Thanks to new technologies, networks are becoming more intelligent, programmable and software-driven. Networking Academy courses support this evolution and expose learners to new concepts and hands-on experiences.
This course covers the foundation of networking and network devices, media, and protocols. You will observe data flowing through a network and configure devices to connect to networks. Finally, you will learn how to use different network applications and protocols to accomplish networking tasks. The knowledge and skills you gain can give you a starting point to find a rewarding career in tech.
Duration: 22 hours
Learning Areas
- Communication in a Connected World
- Network Components, Types and Connections
- Wireless and Mobile Networks
- Build a Home Network
- Communication Principles
- Network Media
- Internet Protocol
- IPv4 and Network Segmentation
- Dynamic Addressing with DHCP
- The ARP Process
- TCP and UDP
This course covers the essentials of network devices and how to configure them. Learn the characteristics and benefits of Cloud and Virtualisation technologies. Explore how to provide Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to devices both manually and automatically. Using this knowledge, you will calculate an IP addressing scheme, configure Cisco devices to create a small network, and test for connectivity issues.
Duration: 22 hours
Learning Areas
- Network Design
- Cloud and Virtualisation
- Number Systems
- Ethernet Switching
- Network Layer
- IPv4 Address Structure
- IP Addressing Services
- Transport Layer
- Cisco IOS Command Line
- ICMP
This course explores key concepts for Internet Protocol (IP) addressing and basic network troubleshooting. Learn about the physical, data link, and network layers and how they work together to provide end-to-end connectivity. Understand how IP addresses are calculated and assigned. Then practice your troubleshooting skills to keep a network up and running.
Duration: 14 hours
Learning Areas
- Physical Layer
- Data Link Layer
- Routing at the Network Layer
- IPv6 Addressing
- IPv6 Neighbour Discovery
- Cisco Switches and Routers
- Troubleshoot Common Network Problems
You’ll start with learning how to support endpoints, networks, and users by diagnosing problems and documenting them. Then, you’ll move on to working as a part of a help desk team and troubleshooting networks and endpoints. Finally, you’ll learn how to remotely support users and access networks. This course will give you the knowledge and skills you need to be successful in IT.
Duration: 12 hours
Learning Areas
- Network Support
- Cybersecurity Threats, Vulnerabilities and Attacks
- Network Security
Register for a free Cisco networking course
Operating Systems & IT Courses
Whether you’re a novice to the digital world or an aspiring SysAdmin or programmer, these courses will propel you forward. Advanced courses will also prepare you for career-ready certification.
Computer Hardware Basics explores the fundamentals of computers and mobile devices, the components that comprise them, how they work, and basic troubleshooting tools and techniques. Having a basic understanding for these devices and how they work is critical for success in today’s digital world. This course is a great starting point for any IT career.
Duration: 6 hours
Learning Areas
- Personal Computers
- Laptops
- Other Mobile Devices
Operating Systems Basics teaches the fundamentals of operating systems. It covers basic concepts and skills needed to understand the purpose and characteristics of operating systems, the implementation of basic OS security, and how to configure mobile device network connectivity and email. Take this course to build your foundational knowledge for success in any IT career.
Duration: 12 hours
Learning Areas
- Windows Operating System
- Linux Overview
- Mobile Device Connectivity
- Mobile Operating Systems and Security
Register for a free Cisco operating systems & IT course
AI & Data Science Courses
Quintillion bytes of data are created EVERY day! Explore how data is transforming the world and opening up exciting new jobs.
This introductory course takes you inside the world of data science. You will learn the basics of data science, data analytics, and data engineering to understand how machine learning is shaping the future of business, healthcare, education, and more. Data science professionals who can provide actionable insights for data-driven decisions are in high demand all over the world.
Duration: 6 hours
Learning Areas
- Experience Analytics
- Data Collection and Storage
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Embarking on Your Career in Data Analytics
This data analytics essentials course teaches you the fundamental tools of a data analyst. You will learn to transform, organise, and visualise data with spreadsheet tools such as Excel. You will also learn how to query data from a relational database using SQL and how to improve your data presentations using powerful business intelligence tools like Tableau. By the end of the course, you will have an analytics portfolio complete with an analysis of the popular movies dataset, showcasing your skills in Excel, SQL and Tableau.
Duration: 30 hours
Learning Areas
- Data Analytics Projects
- Getting Started with Data Gathering and Investigation
- Preparing and Cleaning Data for Analysis
- Transforming Data with Excel
- Analyse the Data Using Statistics
- Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL
- Introduction to Structured Queries
- Introduction to Tableau
- Ethics and Bias in Data
Register for a free Cisco AI & Data Science course
Programming Courses
Endless possibilities await for conceptualising and creating software after you acquire the right programming skills. Each programming course prepares you for an industry recognis
ed certification.
User-friendly with easy-to-read code, Python is a great first programming language to learn and requires no prior programming knowledge. Python skills open you up to careers in almost any industry and are required if you want to continue to more advanced, higher paying software development and engineering roles such as software engineer, systems administrator, and security engineer. In this course, you will learn in-demand skills such as how to design, develop, and improve computer programs, methods for analysing problems using programming, programming best practices, and more. The course also prepares you for the PCEP – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer certification (Exam PCEP-30-0x).
Duration: 30 hours
Learning Areas
- Introduction to Python and Computer Programming
- Python Data Types, Variables, Operators and Basic I/O Operations
- Boolean Values, Conditional Execution, Loops, Lists and List Processing, Logical and Bitwise Operations
- Functions, Tuples, Dictionaries, Exceptions, and Data Processing
This course is the second in the two-course Python Essentials series and is designed for learners already familiar with the basics of Python. Dive into advanced Python concepts, learn Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), and develop your own programming portfolio. This course prepares you for the PCAP – Certified Associate in Python Programming certification (Exam PCAP-31-0x).
Duration: 40 hours
Learning Areas
- Modules, Packages and PIP
- Strings, String and List Methods, Exceptions
- Object-Orientated Programming
If you’re interested in a career in front-end programming, JavaScript is essential to learn. Learn how interactive web and mobile applications are created with this text-based programming language. Then learn to program your own applications! This course is great to start learning programming – no prior knowledge required. This course is aligned to the JSE – Certified Entry-Level JavaScript Programmer Certification.
Duration: 40 hours
Learning Areas
- Introduction to JavaScript and Computer Programming
- Variable, Data Types, Type Casting, and Comments
- Operators and User Interaction
- Control Flow – Conditional Execution and Loops
- Functions
- Errors, Exceptions, Debugging and Troubleshooting
avaScript is a vital programming language that powers our online experiences. From interactive websites to dynamic web applications, JavaScript is the driving force behind the user-friendly interfaces and functionality we enjoy today. JavaScript Essentials 2 is the second course in a 2-part series designed to build your programming skills from the ground up. Building on the foundations laid in JavaScript Essentials 1, you’ll learn how to analyse and model real-world problems using object-oriented programming and explore more intricate aspects of JavaScript such as asynchronous programming and functions.
Duration: 50 hours
Learning Areas
- Classless Objects
- Classes and Class-Based Approach
- Built-In Objects
- Advanced Function Usage
Register for a free Cisco programming course
Digital Literacy Courses
Billions of devices connect to the network every day. Learn how IoT is digitally transforming the world and opening up exciting new jobs.
Discover how IoT, along with emerging technologies such as data analytics and artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, are digitally transforming industries and expanding career opportunities. Invest in learning IoT skills and you can transform any business in any industry, from manufacturing to environmental conservation. Today over 26 billion people, systems, and physical objects are connected and share data seamlessly over the Internet – and it’s rapidly changing our world. Learn the IoT skills you will need to land a well-paying job in this exciting field.
Duration: 6 hours
Learning Areas
- Everything is Connected
- Everything Becomes Programmable
- Everything Generates Data
- Everything Can be Automated
- Everything Needs to be Secured
- Educational and Business Opportunities
Register for a free Cisco digital literacy course
Professional Skills Courses
While entrepreneurship carries some risk, the current job market and economy no longer offer the same level of security they once did. There’s no better time than the present to bring your business idea to life! The Launching a Business Venture course is designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs like you take action and learn the critical steps needed to strategically advance a business idea from planning to launch. You will step into the shoes of an entrepreneur through immersive real-world scenarios and discover the secrets of successful business launches and the top reasons why ventures fail.
Duration: 20 hours
Learning Areas
- Entrepreneurial Marketing and Marketing Mix
- Market Research, Market Opportunity Recognition, and Target Market
- Marketing Techniques and Tools for Entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneurial Branding
- Marketing Strategy and the Marketing Plan
- Sales and Customer Service
- Launching the Imperfect Business
- Growth Signs, Pains and Cautions
- Designing the Business Model
- Conducting a Feasibility Analysis
- The Business Plan
- Launching Your Venture
Managing a Business Venture guides savvy entrepreneurs like you through strategic business management and startup operational planning. Gain practical skills in entrepreneurial finance and accounting, including creating financial statements and projections. Discover the right business structure for your venture and understand its legal, tax, and risk implications. You’ll also learn the art of networking to build your dream entrepreneurial team.
Duration: 20 hours
Learning Areas
- Overview of Entrepreneurial Finance and Accounting Strategies
- Special Funding Strategies
- Accounting Basics for Entrepreneurs
- Developing Startup Financial Statements and Projections
- Building and Connecting to Networks
- Designing a Startup Operational Plan
- Business Structures
- Capital Acquisition, Business Domicile and Technology
- Mitigating and Managing Risks
This is the first of two courses that together teach English in the context of IT. The course focuses on terminology and phrases used in the industry, covering grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening exercises to equip you with the English language skills valued in IT. Developed in collaboration with OpenEDG, the English for IT series is targeted for learners with at least B1-level English proficiency (lower intermediate) and is built to take you up to B2 proficiency.
Duration: 50 hours
Learning Areas
- Product Management: Identify problems
- Network Engineer: Interpret and Implement Instructions
- Software Engineer: Analyse Factual Information
- Customer Support: Examine Key Information
- Security Engineer: Incorporate Goals and Objectives
- Security Engineer: Participate in Discussion
This is the second of two courses that together teach English in the context of IT. The course focuses on terminology and phrases used in the industry, covering grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening exercises to equip you with the English language skills valued in IT. Developed in collaboration with OpenEDG, the English for IT series is targeted for learners with at least B1-level English proficiency (lower intermediate) and is built to take you up to B2 proficiency.
Duration: 50 hours
Learning Areas
- Network Engineer: Analyse and Prioritise
- Customer Support: Request Feedback
- Software Engineer: Evaluate Information
- Software Engineer: Identify Issues and Concerns
- Network Engineer: Defend a Point of View
- Product Management: Update Colleagues
Stakeholders play a critical role in every project. Learning to effectively engage them is a core skill for you to develop in any workplace. In this course, learners gain the insights and tools to identify, prioritise, and engage with stakeholders for success. This is a Professional Skills course that teaches learners essential personal and social skills in the context of actual work scenarios.
Duration: 3 hours
Learning Areas
- Business Value of Stakeholders
- Basic Processes for Determining Stakeholder Needs
- Techniques for Effective Stakeholder Interactions
This course covers entrepreneurship fundamentals, including the entrepreneurial perspective, identifying opportunities, and crafting your entrepreneurial story. Offering a solid foundation for anyone interested in developing entrepreneurial skills.
Duration: 20 hours
Learning Areas
- Entrepreneurship Today
- Entrepreneurial Vision and Goals
- The Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Overview of the Entrepreneurial Journey
- The Process of Becoming an Entrepreneur
- Entrepreneurial Pathways
- Researching Potential Business Opportunities
- Competitive Analysis
- Clarifying Your Vision, Mission and Goals
- Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story
- Developing Pitches for Various Audiences and Goals
- Protecting Your Idea
Effective communication is an essential skill for any professional, and reports are the foundation of business communication. Knowing how to develop impactful reports is a superpower that can help you stand out in your career. Creating Compelling Reports will teach you the business value of reports, how to craft persuasive messages, and making authoring decisions that resonate. This course covers different types of reports such as emails, oral reports, and written reports.
Duration: 4 hours
Learning Areas
- Business Value of Reports
- Working Within Report Requirements
- Crafting Your Message
- Shape Your Report
Register for a free Cisco professional skills course
