Ciena announced a Carrier Ethernet Certification Program that focuses on Carrier Ethernet technology in general, not on the specific products or implementations of any specific vendor.

The IEEE has named Ciena Learning Solutions an IEEE Education Partner.

Global Corporate College (GCC), an association of more than 100 colleges and universities worldwide, has partnered with Ciena to offer the new Carrier Ethernet Certification Program in select markets through its member schools.

Courses are offered in traditional classrooms, online and on-site at customer locations through an international network of partner educational institutions.

Carrier Ethernet is the first of multiple training and certification programs that Ciena said it will be offering through its new Learning Solutions group, set up for the technology certification and continuing education market.

“Technology certification programs today essentially represent a live version of a specific vendor’s product manual, so we see a real opportunity to offer increased value by focusing on the fundamental technology building blocks of advanced networks,” said James Caprara, vice president of global human resources development at Ciena . “This approach enables us to extend our Carrier Ethernet and optical technology and network design expertise into new, knowledge-based products that deliver vendor-independent training and education to a wide range of sales, engineering, technical support and IT professionals from service providers, large enterprises, research and education institutions, government, military and other organizations, as well as college students in the early stages of their networking careers.”