Cisco's goal is to drive better business outcomes and create new market opportunities for our customers. And one of the fundamental ways this can be achieved is by helping them develop talent truly capable of addressing digital business transformation needs.

With skilled employees trained and certified to maximize the value of current technologies, customers are empowered to innovate and grow. IDC reports that organizations with certified IT professionals and well-trained teams are 80 percent faster to adopt new technologies by overcoming concerns, avoiding or resolving system issues, and efficiently performing integrations.

A shrinking half-life for skills

It's a fact of modern life, though, that skills are becoming obsolete at an accelerating rate. McKinsey & Company found that the half-life of a learned skill is down to five years now.

In technology, it is even faster. For example, software engineers have to refresh their skills every 12 to 18 months due to rapid changes in automation, cloud, networking and the like.

Advanced technologies such as network programmability, security and cloud, are central to organizational growth strategies. And ongoing technology transformation requires a technical workforce with an intimate understanding of the very latest technology trends, opportunities, and threats.

To help our customers meet the need to constantly update workforce skills, Learning@Cisco developed the Cisco Platinum Learning Library. This all-access, subscription-based digital learning solution contains Cisco online certification, product, and technology training, all in one place. It is the most convenient way to learn the latest about Cisco technologies anywhere, anytime, on any device, on an ongoing basis.

The Cisco Platinum Learning Library is designed to help deploy and support the entire suite of Cisco technologies and solutions, while also providing career paths customized to each individual's needs. It's unique because it's from the source -Cisco -and is designed to offer current, convenient, customized and continuous learning.

It contains expertise based on Cisco's 25 years of leadership in learning and delivers that expertise both in theory (training) and in practice (labs), with access to a dynamic blend of over 17,000 learning assets. It also includes access to dynamic and timely content, often added and updated, so skills stay fresh.

Meeting learners' demands

Learner preferences are changing. Including those of our customers' employees. They want convenient access to skills development, on-demand to stay current as technology continues to evolve.

To address these changing preferences, the Cisco Platinum Learning Library allows the workforce the ability to ramp up to speed anytime, anywhere, on any device. It's an ideal learning solution for globally dispersed teams with varied skill levels, and it saves travel costs and time away from the office. When teams need training, there's no scheduling involved. They can work at their own pace, on their own schedule, wherever they are. Digital courses also yield progress points towards recertification in some instances.

The library offers a customized approach to learning in which each individual can build his or her own learning roadmap and, using built-in analytics, identify and focus on areas that address specific learning needs.

Optimizing time and budget

To thrive in this world of rapid technological change requires new levels of expertise and on-demand access to technical training. Having to send employees away for training can be a drain on our customers' businesses in terms of time, money, and efficiency.

The library offers a variety of cost-effective purchase options that help achieve training goals without sacrificing valuable time and resources. Unlimited access to the Cisco Platinum Learning Library helps our customers get the training they need while avoiding travel-related costs and time away from the office. And for individuals focused on a specific technology, the Cisco Platinum Learning Library now offers five libraries as a subset of the all-access library: Networking, Security, Data Center, Collaboration, and Cloud.

Maximizing value

Cisco will continue to focus on driving customer success, and the Cisco Platinum Learning Library is carefully designed to support this effort. It offers world-class training to enable business growth, innovation, and transformation. And it empowers them to maximize the value of technology. Providing continuous, integrated learning positions technology professionals for leadership and organizations for innovation, as well. Continue learning about the Cisco Platinum Learning Library today.