Pictured above: Birmingham City University graduate, Phil Bridges, who now works for Cisco

One of the World's biggest technology companies has chosen to employ more graduates from Birmingham City University than any other university in the UK.

This year American multinational, Cisco Systems, offered just 23 places on its highly competitive graduate training programme, which receives thousands of applications each year. Six of these places were given to graduates from Birmingham City University which boasts Europe's leading Cisco network academy programme. 

Of the six graduates, four were hired as Associate Network Consulting Engineers (ANCE) who are currently training in Belgium and two who have been hired as Associate Systems Engineers (ASE) and are being trained here in the UK. Following the training, which lasts between four-11 months, the graduates will be guaranteed jobs with Cisco Systems which employs more than 65,000 staff and has an annual revenue of $40 billion. The graduates undergo an intensive training programme which consists of classroom, on the job experience and shadowing, as well as hands-on technical simulations in computer lab environments. They are also given non technical training in customer relationship management, Cisco internal tools and databases and presentation skills. 

Upon completion of training the ASEs will go into field Systems Engineering roles as they are the company sales team's technical experts in designing and overseeing the implementation of customer's networks. ANCEs will work with existing customers to solve very high level technical issues. 

Cisco's University Relations Manager (EMEA) Sedef Buyukataman said: "We have an excellent working partnership with the leadership and Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment at Birmingham City University and really use this relationship as a benchmark for all our targeted universities. 

"The emphasis on network specific education has really given the six graduates a strong advantage in the jobs market, but that's not the only reason that we hired them. The roles they gained are all customer-facing positions so the ability to balance technical training with other valuable skills such as presentation style, communication skills and out-of-the-box analytical thinking is really what sets them apart. 

"I believe the educational culture at Birmingham City University fosters this and has produced a strong pool of candidates for our open positions.  No other university in our network of targeted schools has placed this high a number of graduates with us this past year and the partnership with the University is only growing so I expect this number to grow in coming years." 

Mak Sharma, Head of the University's School of Computing, Telecommunications and Networks said: "We are exceptionally proud of our relationship with Cisco. Successful employer engagement is vital in the current economic climate as it helps strengthen our reputation for student employability. Birmingham City University is ranked 16th out of 121 institutions for getting its students into graduate level jobs. Cisco has provided placements, case presentations and research work which have given students an enhanced insight into IT career paths."

Following on from 2010's record intake, Cisco and the Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment have begun initial talks about plans to approach students for 2011's full-time and internship opportunities