In early 2015, APNIC undertook a survey to help determine the priorities and future directions of our training program. The online survey had 249 responses from 37 economies, supplemented by interviews of six National Internet Registries and 41 other individuals who had indicated a willingness to participate.
As a incentive to complete the online questionnaire, respondents were entered into two draws to win an Apple iPad Air 2. The draws were conducted at APNIC Executive Leadership Team meetings, with the winners being Warren Fanasia of Solomon Telekom, and Ravneel Sharma of Telecom Fiji.
Overall, it was heartening to hear APNIC’s training is perceived as being good quality and APNIC’s neutrality is considered important. Another interesting finding was that there is a lot of demand for APNIC to develop examination-based certification.
Other conclusions to be drawn from this survey include:
- Hands-on workshops are considered the most valuable form of training.
- The eLearning video library is currently hosted on YouTube, which is blocked in some economies. Alternative hosting platforms should be investigated.
- There is support for the introduction of self-paced online learning, and is considered important for reaching out to more trainees.
- Advanced topics such as Network Security, IPv6, BGP, DNSSEC, ISP/IX Design, MPLS, Incident Handling and Response and OSPF/IS-IS are of most interest. There is also significant interest in SDN as this has implications for building networks in future.
- The most popular locations for training are overwhelmingly those where APNIC has received little or no requests for training. APNIC should more proactively organize training in these locations.
- There is overwhelming support for delivering training in English, although there is some interest in training in certain other languages.
- There is a preference for APNIC training to be undertaken by APNIC staff, with NIRs supporting the training-the-trainers concept.
- APNIC training fees are set at, or slightly below the level that people are able and prepared to pay.
- More and frequent training is widely requested, and demand for training is expected to grow in line with APNIC Membership.
Many thanks to everyone who provided their feedback through this process. These findings are invaluable to APNIC and will help inform the priorities and future directions of our training program.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.