Cisco Academy CCNA provision now on Version 5
Cisco Academy’s CCNA provision is moving from Version 4 to Version 5, which covers the Cisco Discovery and Exploration pathways.
Version 5 is already online and all four components will be active from November 2013.
The following BTEC units will continue to link to the Cisco pathways, as follows:
- Units 101, 102, 103, 104 = Cisco Discovery pathway
- Units 105, 106, 107, 108 = Cisco Exploration pathway.
However, as part of the transition to CCNA Version 5, the Cisco Discovery pathway will be removed. This means that BTEC units 101, 102, 103 and 104 will not be available for BTEC National IT qualifications from the end of August 2014.
The new Version 5 provision still aligns with the current QCF Exploration pathway units. In particular:
- ‘Introduction to Networks’ maps to BTEC Unit 105
- ‘Routing and Switching Essentials’ broadly maps to BTEC Unit 106
- ‘Scaling Networks’ maps to BTEC Unit 107
- ‘Connecting Networks’ broadly maps to BTEC Unit 108.
Please note that, in Version 5 of the Cisco CCNA provision, content on NAT/DHCP and ACLs has been moved from the fourth to the second component. However, in the BTEC National in IT, these topics are still covered in Unit 108 ‘CCNA Accessing the WAN’. This should not cause a problem for learners, as they will already have covered these topics earlier in the Cisco course and can refresh their knowledge and understanding prior to taking the assessment for Unit 108.
For example, in BTEC Unit 108, M1 assesses content on address management (for example, DHCP and NAT), which is covered earlier in Version 5 of the Cisco provision at the same time as learners are undertaking BTEC Unit 106 ‘Routing and Switching Essentials’. At this point, learners will not be assessed on these topics as part of the BTEC qualification. Instead, when learners undertake Unit 108, they will need to refresh these topics prior to assessment.
We have started work on the next generation BTEC Nationals in IT and will amend the Cisco IT vendor units according to the latest Cisco provision.
This has been checked by Pearson’s Senior Standards Verifier for IT in collaboration with the Cisco Academy Manager for UK and Ireland.