Access to “competent” talent is one of the biggest challenges facing the world, Cisco’s vice president of the Middle East and Africa told Arab News in an interview. Reem Asaad said that to tackle this issue Cisco introduced its Networking Academy program in Saudi Arabia, which was established in 2000. The program aims at teaching students digital skills. Currently, there are 55,000 students enrolled in the academy, and to date, the program has trained 220,000 students. “It’s a platform where we teach digital skills, innovation, technology, programming, cybersecurity, and this will help really uplift Saudi Arabia"s effort for global competitiveness and access to talent,” Asaad said. She added that “digital skills are the main pillar for the future.” The vice president affirmed her company’s commitments with the Saudi government, stating that Cisco has three offices in Saudi Arabia and a large number of staff working in the Kingdom. In addition, Asaad shared with Arab News some statistics on the Saudi population’s usage of the internet. She said that 80 percent of Saudi respondents to a company study – which surveyed 60,000 users – said they were happy with the reliability of their broadband connection, which is higher than the global average of 68 percent. Also, the survey showed that 40 percent of respondents work from home and are using the internet to connect to their hybrid work or run their businesses. “But, the most important finding for me, is that when we ask them about what is the most valuable use for the internet for them, about 38 percent in Saudi Arabia said it’s for the education, which compared to the peer group, it’s 28 percent,” Asaad noted.