The Internet Society, in partnership with South Asia Network Operators Group (SANOG) recently concluded a five-week, hands-on training course for entry level network engineers and system administrators from South Asia. The online course Introduction to Network Operations, which took place from June 15 to July 19, prepared professionals to take advantage of the new opportunities created by the Internet. The training provided practical learning about UNIX/Linux, networking, and the Domain Name System (DNS) to over 40 participants from Research Education Networks (RENs), government institutions, network operators, universities, and private institutions. SANOG subject matter experts Thilina Pathirana from Sri Lanka and Gazi Zehadul Kabir from Bangladesh moderated via Moodle, an e-learning platform.
Skills and Knowledge for Digital Transformation
The course aimed to prepare young engineers for the future. The technical skills and hands-on knowledge enable them to build expertise to advance professionally in their chosen field of network and system administration. The course also served as a common platform for South Asia community members to actively interact, exchange knowledge, and learn from one another.
For participants, the course was a great learning experience. “It was the best online course I had yet,” said Afaq Ahmed from Pakistan. For young engineers Shreekar Tiwari from Nepal and Randhir Kanojia from India, the course provided practical experience and skills to lead digital transformation in the region.
Immediate Rewards
Deepthi Gunasekara, an engineer from Sri Lanka, excelled during the course. She was offered a job by the Lanka Education And Research Network (LEARN) in Sri Lanka. She is now an Assistant Engineer at LEARN, a National Research and Education Network (NREN) that not only interconnects educational and research institutions across the country, but provides network-related services.
“It was an excellent experience on learning and implementing DNS. Internet Society Network Operations course was very helpful for me, especially [as] it brought an opportunity to uplift my professional career [and earn] a new job,” said Deepthi.
Course moderator Gazi Zehadul Kabir, a member of the National Network Design Committee of Bangladesh, was thrilled to learn a freshly-mentored engineer got a job. He said the course enabled even greater interaction with course participants online. “The Internet Society brought a new era for us with this online course, where [we were] more closer to students,” said Gazi.
For more that 15 years he has been part of the South Asia technical community. He is happy to have this opportunity to pass on skills he curated over the years to young people. His wish is that the Internet Society should continue strengthening the capacity of the South Asia Internet community to take advantage of future opportunities.
Learn more about Introduction to Network Operations.
Image by Kimberly Farmer via Unsplash