The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) announced today that it has launched a new platform for upskilling the telecoms industry — ‘TIP Academy.' The platform was developed in collaboration with Accenture.

TIP participants have expressed the need for an industry-led, operator and vendor neutral training service, designed to address a global skills and resource shortage in the telecom industry — creating a workforce which is more digitally fluent and better able to participate in or lead on the solution design, development, testing, and deployment of open and disaggregated network solutions. Moreover, research has found that companies with a digitally fluent workforce lead their peers in revenue growth and better worker satisfaction¹.

TIP Academy is a B2B learning service developed in response to this demand. It will offer courses that center on the wide range of open disaggregated solutions that are currently in development. The courses will be enriched with case studies and online events that allow the members of the TIP Academy community to learn from real-world experiences, such as insights from tests in TIP Community Labs and pilot trials, which can then be utilized within their respective organizations.

Vodafone, Accenture, and Deutsche Telekom have signed up to be charter clients of TIP Academy - whereby the platform will be incorporated into their employee learning programs.

Yago Tenorio, Chairman of TIP, said: "TIP has established itself as a coalescing force in the industry —bringing the world's operators together with vendors and other connectivity stakeholders to accelerate the development of new and innovative disaggregated technologies. The momentum behind the development of these technologies is undeniable. The commercial reality of these technologies means that the industry now needs to upskill its workforce to fully leverage these new solutions. That's where TIP Academy fits in. The mission and vision of the TIP Academy is to be a referral point in the ecosystem of organizations who share the common goal of closing the knowledge and skills gap related with open disaggregated solutions."

Michele Marrone, Cloud First Networks European Lead at Accenture, commented: "Today, more than ever, organisations need to operate and evolve at an unprecedented speed and scale. Network connectivity is at the heart of this transformation enabling the journey through the Cloud Continuum. The recent and growing adoption of Open RAN across multiple markets worldwide confirms organisations are committed to innovating faster than ever before. We are teaming with TIP Academy to extend Accenture's new Cloud First Networks' business and industry expertise to accelerate the path to value. TIP Academy provides an opportunity for the whole industry to collectively put talent and skills development at the forefront of an ever-evolving ecosystem."

Curriculum and roadmap

The first curriculum on the platform is centered on Open RAN, delivering the only comprehensive end-to-end training in the industry. The complete curriculum will include more than 20 modules, starting from the fundamentals to more advanced topics, such as Open RAN System Integration or TCO and Business Evolution. They are self-sufficient content blocks that are reused and mixed.

Learners will be able to access TIP Academy content through an interactive, multimedia e-learning platform, and follow through a curriculum, alone or in groups, with self-assessments and tests incorporated to support the learning. All the self-learning assets are designed to match competencies and learning objectives — from beginners to architects. At the end of a curriculum, a given learner will receive a TIP Academy certificate. In the near future, TIP intends to list those organizations with employees who have successfully completed training and received TIP Academy certificates, onto TIP Exchange.

"TIP Academy fulfills two industry needs that are currently unaddressed: impartiality in terms of content, and breadth and depth in terms of scope and relevance of learning across open and disaggregated network solutions. TIP Academy is that necessary solution to a global industry need and will be an important catalyst towards accelerated deployment of open and disaggregated network solutions," said Vishal Mathur, Global Head of Engagement of TIP.

"Let's also not forget that the TIP community plays a pivotal role. Not only in the consumption of TIP Academy content, but also in the contribution back to the community in terms of richness of content but also offer of facilities, including TIP Community Labs, which have become convenient locations for concurrently running TIP led system readiness testing as well as practical hands-on training for learners immersed in TIP Academy curricula. And for those professionals already proven as technical experts within their organizations, why shouldn't they go on a fast track technical architects diploma course, offered by TIP Academy in the future," Vishal added.

TIP Academy is now available here: https://www.tip.academy.

About the Telecom Infra Project

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations that are driving infrastructure solutions to advance global connectivity. Half of the world's population is still not connected to the internet, and for those who are, connectivity is often insufficient. This limits access to the multitude of consumer and commercial benefits provided by the internet, thereby impacting GDP growth globally. However, a lack of flexibility in the current solutions – exacerbated by a limited choice in technology providers – makes it challenging for operators to efficiently build and upgrade networks. Founded in 2016, TIP is a community of diverse members that includes hundreds of companies — from service providers and technology partners, to systems integrators and other connectivity stakeholders. We are working together to develop, test and deploy open, disaggregated, and standards-based solutions that deliver the high quality connectivity that the world needs – now and in the decades to come. Find out more: www.telecominfraproject.com

¹ Accenture ‘Honing your digital edge', 21 November 2020

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The Telecom Infra Project Launch 'TIP Academy' in Collaboration With Accenture