Cisco and Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) organized the Third National Cisco Skills Competition in Sri Lanka. The day-long competition saw participation of 150 students from 50 teams comprising three students each from four Cisco networking academies. The three winning teams from the SLIIT - Colombo (1st Place), SLIIT - Malabe (Second Place) and SLIIT - Colombo (Third Place) will represent Sri Lanka at the SAARC Skills Competition scheduled for end September and the winner will represent Sri Lanka at the APAC Skills Competition on October 28 2010.

The competition was inaugurated by SLIIT Managing Director, Dr. Lalith Gamage, Cisco South Asia Regional Manager-Corporate Responsibility, Lokesh Mehra, Cisco India and SAARC Area Academy Manager, Jagan Jothivel and Cisco SAARC Technical Manager, B.S. Ananth. The Skills Competition comprised three rounds which are multiple choice networking related questions followed by Packet Tracer Simulation Activities and finally troubleshooting. Such competitions help evaluate students' skills in designing, maintaining and troubleshooting computer networks so as to ensure that the quality of training being provided to students is in line with the best in the world.

Sri Lanka currently has 1300 enrolled students across five academies and overall 2100 students have been exposed to the Cisco curriculum since inception. The Cisco team, besides participating in the National Skills Competition has also conducted retooling and updates for existing academies offerings Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and IT Essentials curriculum to students.