Nothing worth having comes easy.
Many people debate over the meaning and applicability of the quote above. But while it may not apply to everything in life, I do think it applies to education and academic achievement.
There are two main reasons why we put in the work for a top-level degree or a certification. One is the obvious reason of the credibility a title gives us from the community in our area of expertise. The second one is the knowledge and resilience we gain by working hard and persevering to obtain that coveted title.
In the networking industry, few certifications can be compared to the CCIE. This expert level certification was designed to test the knowledge of a candidate in the most realistic and challenging environment you can face with a Cisco deployment. It covers all areas of expertise around the chosen technology: planning, designing, operating, and optimizing. Apart from the knowledge you gain preparing for the certification, there are clear, tangible benefits to having a CCIE certification, such as career advancement and salary increase.
The CCIE certification is not easy to obtain. But it is worth it.
The Certification vs. the Training
Historically, it has been difficult to prepare for the CCIE lab exam. There is a lot of knowledge you must acquire and learn to interconnect. And there is an imperative need to practice, practice, and practice some more in a lab environment. There is also the challenge of the structure and timing of the exam itself.
And the first problem engineers face is… How do I start? What materials do I use? Which content? How do I build my own lab?
Many candidates decide to take the challenge of preparing for the CCIE exam on their own. This can be difficult and time-consuming. And most of the time, candidates will have to attempt the exam multiple times before passing. On the other hand, CCIE training offerings can be limited. Maybe they cover only the last stage in preparation, limit the materials to a few topics only, or offer only labs to practice.
At NIL Learning, we decided to do better.
Enter Project 525
Out of the growing need to train CCIEs in the continent of Africa, NIL Learning and Cisco collaborated to create a program to train engineers to reach expert level in an ambitious timeframe – 1 year.
Thus, Project 525 was created. The program is named after the aspirational goal to raise the number of CCIEs in Africa to 500 by the end of 2025. NIL Learning and Cisco worked together to create a program that will provide candidates with all the necessary content, tools, and guidance to be ready to take the CCIE exam. Our goal is to drastically increase the pass rate on the first attempt at passing the CCIE lab exam.
The program is now in its second year and the first few groups have completed their journey and taken the CCIE exam. The numbers are very encouraging, and we continue to make improvements to the training to continuously raise the bar. In October 2024, a graduation ceremony took place in Johannesburg in which 22 people were handed their CCIE certificates directly by the Cisco Learning & Certification leadership team.
How Does Project 525 Work?
The first step is checking that candidates meet the prerequisites to join Project 525. Having a valid CORE exam for the selected track is one prerequisite (for example, ENCOR for CCIE EI track). The second prerequisite is passing a pre-assessment that was created specifically for Project 525.
After candidates are accepted into the program, they are grouped into cohorts. Each cohort will share a mentor and work through the steps in the program together. One of the advantages of working in a group is that candidates can learn from each other as much as from the materials and their mentor. Each cohort meets for the first time during the induction meeting. After that, the real work begins.
The training program is divided into 3 phases. The first phase is centered around Cisco U. trainings and practice. The second phase provides a bootcamp to bring together all the topics. The last phase provides access to a simulated CCIE lab to check exam readiness and finally book and take the CCIE lab exam. The program provides all candidates with access to labs (CML, CCIE practice labs), a CCIE certified mentor, and reporting on their progress (individual and group level).
Expansion
A few key factors have made Project 525 a very successful training program to obtain a CCIE: the combination of different content elements, the support of a mentor and peers, and the cooperation with the Cisco Learning and Certifications team. But by far what makes the biggest impact is the commitment of all candidates to put in time and effort into this intensive learning program.
Due to its success, the program has expanded from Africa to Europe, and, in the future, we hope to make it available worldwide.
In Europe we launched Project 525 during Cisco Live 2025 in Amsterdam. Our first cohorts will start their journey in September 2025 and the first batch of 525 graduates in Europe will be ready in 2026 to start the next stage in their careers as Cisco experts.
If you are interested in becoming a CCIE and are not sure where to start, reach out to us and we will gladly go through the details of the program with you. You can also listen to this webinar that outlines all the steps of the program.
The journey will not be easy, but it will be worth it.