Samara State University of Railways of the Russian Federation

The only university in the Volga region that trains specialists with higher professional education for the railway industry. The university includes 3 institutes and 3 faculties, 4 branches in the cities of Orenburg, Orsk, Ruzaevka and Ufa. The academy has 37 departments, including 16 graduating.

On the basis of Samara State University of Railways (SamGUPS) in April 2010, the Cisco Network Academy began work. Students of universities, schools, colleges, vocational schools of Samara and everyone wishing to increase their level of competence in the field of network technologies can become its students.

SamGUPS was founded in 1973 on the basis of a branch of the All-Union Correspondence Institute of Railway Engineers transport as the Kuibyshev Institute of Railway Engineers. Today, SamGUPS is the only university in the Volga Federal District leading the training of highly qualified specialists for the railway industry. It consists of 3 institutes (transport general engineering, transport equipment and structures, economics and management), 3 faculties (electrical engineering, additional, formations correspondence) and 4 branches in Orenburg, Orsk, Ruzaevka and Ufa. Currently, more than 10 thousand students from 15 subjects are studying at 37 departments of the university - of the Russian Federation the republics of Bashkortostan, Komi, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, as well as the Volgograd, Voronezh, Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Tambov, Ulyanovsk and Chelyabinsk regions.

The Cisco Network Academy for SamGUPS has local status. Lecture and practical classes are held on Cisco equipment installed in the computer classes of the university, under the guidance of Vitaly Yuryevich Petrushenko, head of the information technology department of the Informatization Department of SamGUPS.

The first group of students was formed on December 14, 2009. It included senior students of SamGUPS studying in the specialty "Information Systems and Technologies," as well as employees of the Informatization Department of SamGUPS who want to improve their qualifications.

Teaching at the Cisco Network Academy is conducted under the CCNA program, divided into two types - CCNA Discovery and CCNA Exploration. The CCNA Discovery course is aimed at students with basic skills. It reflects the day-to-day tasks of a network technology specialist and introduces students to the main ways of servicing networks of various types. As part of CCNA Exploration, students in advanced engineering, math, and other exact sciences learn how to install and configure switches and routers in multi-protocol networks, troubleshoot initial problems, and improve network performance and security.

Upon completion of training, everyone can pass exams for the industrial certificate CCNET and CCNA in certified testing centers, which are also located in Samara (Softline, Samara State Technical University and Network Academy-C). In the future, it is planned to conduct training in the programs "Fundamentals of Information Technologies" (IT Essentials) and CCNP. "The opening of the Cisco Network Academy on the basis of SamGUPS is another step towards the development of distance education in Samara," said Vitaly Yuryevich Petrushenko. "This form of training allows you to significantly increase the number of network specialists with certification that meets international standards, which is especially relevant in the face of a shortage of highly qualified IT personnel."