What skills do you need in beginning workers? 1

[techskil]

I am getting ready to start teaching high school in at the first of the year. One of the classes that I will be dealing with is that of networking? I don't know much about it and would like input as to what skills you would like in newly graduated kids looking for a job. What standards or basic items would you expect in an employee?

In order to get this information to students, where can I go? Colleges currently don't teach us about this stuff, which I consider a crock. If we're going to be Tech Ed Teachers, why not give us the full spectrum of Technology. I would appreciate any curriculum or ideas that you might have.

 

[franke]

Three books that I found invaluable were:
"IP Routing Primer", by Robert Wright, Cisco Press;
"NT Network Plumbing; Routers, Proxies, and Web Services", by Anthony Northrup, IDG Books; and
"Communications Systems & Networks", by Ray Horak, M&T Books.

Your students should have a firm understanding of the OSI model and the role each layer plays in a networked environment. In addition, they should understand and be able to configure IP addresses (requiring a knowledge of binary, Hex, and decimal and the ability to convert between them).

You might also want to give a brief overview of the EIA/TIA 568 Standards for Commercial Wiring.

Once started, I'm sure there will be enough information to keep the little rascal's busy for the next four years.

franke

 

[skip555]

look into ciscos networking accademy , they were pushing this thru high schools its a good program

 

[MasterRacker]

This page is a list of training materials approved by CompTIA for their Network+ certification, which is designed specifically for beginning network technicians. An overview of the info covered on the Network+ exam would probably do very well as an introductory networking course.

http://www.comptia.org/certification/Network/get_caqc.asp

Jeff
No matter how bad it is, it can always get worse ....

 

[TouchToneTommy]

But since this is the Cabling Forum, are you looking for skills for cable pullers, or network administrators? Two very different animals. Cable pullers need to be able to run wire from point A to point B, using whatever means available such as conduit, running through attics or ceiling spaces, crawl spaces and basements, etc. They need to be able to fish walls, terminate jacks and patch panels or blocks; and know building construction and building codes so that they can do their job correctly, and not get trouble with the inspector.

I don't know many network administrators that are good at installing the infastructure, nor many cablers that do a whole lot with hubs and switches and routers, etc.

 

[MasterRacker]

Tommy, that's a good point. I threw out that link since he specifically mentioned 'networking'.

I don't know anything about cabling certifications but I can recomend three books:

"Telecommunications Cabling Installation" by BICSI - McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-137205-9

"Network Cabling Handbook" by Chris Clark - Osbourne ISBN 0-07-213233-7

"CABLING: The Complete Guide to Network Wiring" by David Groth & Jim McBee - Sybex ISBN 0-7821-2645-6

They're all good references. I would probably recommend the last as a beginning textbook since it has a lot more illustrations and is an easier read.
Jeff
No matter how bad it is, it can always get worse ....

 

[glister]

Curriculum Outline for Certified Cabling Installer

http://www.eta-sda.com/certification/comps/dcic.pdf

Certified Network Systems Technician Competencies

http://www.eta-sda.com/certification/comps/cnst.pdf

Either of these could serve as a good starting outline for any curriculm you develope. This way you don't have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. By taking the certification test at the end of the class, you would have a good target metric and your students can gain a certification to boot. Look into the ETA.

A+,N+,S+,L+,I+,CST,CNST,CFOT,CCNT,ACSP,ISA CCST3

 

[wybnormal]

The hardest part is convince that learning the nuts and bolts of cabling IS important. You can not have a network without solid cabling and newbies need to have this very clear in their heads. I've seen too many people waste their time looking for non-existant *network* problems when it was a faulty cable/connector. I *salvaged* a 5,0000 dollar switch by swabbing the connectors with contact cleaner. The engineer was ready to chuck the whole thing.. maybe I should have waited

I'm sure we all could go on and on about.

The Cisco stuff is very good in the beginning. What they dicuss cuts across vendors. Another good book is Top Down network Design.. cisco centric but it covers solid network design principles. The NT Plumbing book is very useful as a reference for NT centric networks.

I would also toss in some Linux/Unix stuff... just basic stuff like how to check the interfaces.. how ping differs from MS, key files for networking on a Unix box. How to use VI just in light detail.

Once you have learned a command line like Unix, many network devices are not so hard.

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[bierhunter]

All of the networking mentioned above are excellent ideas.

As a network engineer who started as a cable puller many years ago, I'm going to emphasize the cabling knowledge as well.

About 90% or more of the network problems Network Admins run into are cable related. I work with many Net Admins who don't know anything about cabling, and they spend most of their time troubleshooting all of the complex things instead of checking the basics first. I've seen technicians spend days on a problem, because they don't believe me when I tell them that connections go bad over time and to recrimp the connectors and repunch the jacks. They will finally do that and the problem goes away.

Also, proper color coding is important. If someone is installing cable and thinks the color code doesn't matter as long as the colors match...they are asking for trouble down the road. The little things will pop up and kick you in the butt later on. Standards are there for a reason.

I've been working on these things for over 20 years now and I can't stand it when new a sys admin tells me that cabling is below him (bah!). I feel that a person can't manage the network if they don't understand the basics of the infrastructure. I recently inherited a network on a DoD contract. The cable plant is terrible, and the techs had no training. Panduit and Corning were kind enough to come in a train them for free (we buy alot of their stuff). Wonderful companies. It's amazing how much better things are running now.

Without a good cable plant, the routers, switches, and servers, are just expensive paper weights; and the Network Administrator has to be able to know where to troubleshoot. I require all of my Network Admins to help install cable until they are proficient at it. They start out hating it, but in the end they appreciate it. They start to feel much more confident in managing the network.

Now...with my babbling out of the way...

TCP/IP knowledge is very important. OSI very important. Good OSI knowledge can cut down troubleshooting time immensely.
IP subnetting.

Basically, a good foundation of knowledge for internetworking. Teaching industry standard instead of vendor specific. The vendor specifc training would then come as additional courses.

Cisco training materials are excellent. Even though they are from a vendor, they teach networking fundamentals from a standard approach instead of a vendor specific approach.

Microsoft is finally making changes to their materials. Their old TCP/IP books were crap. They taught TCP/IP the microsoft way and just confused everyone.

I could go on for days about this, so I better quit. heh.

 

[wybnormal]

I dont know.. this is one of my pet s also... wind me and watch me go

MikeS Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu