Network Administration Technology

When an office’s Wi-Fi drops or a server stops responding, the network administrator is the first person everyone calls. Assiniboine’s Network Administration Technology diploma is a two-year programme that prepares you to establish, operate and maintain local and wide area networks, hardware and software. It is taught at the Victoria Avenue East campus in Brandon, with a September start.

Year one starts with the hardware in Computer Repair 1 and Computer Repair 2, then moves through Networking 1 to Networking 4 and Routing 1 and Routing 2 to build switching and routing skills. Critical Thinking, Customers and Communications, and Service Management Foundations teach how IT support is delivered to users. Year two adds Operating Systems Fundamentals, Advanced Operating Systems, PowerShell Foundations for scripting, Network Protection for security, Routing 3, and the Networking 5 to Networking 9 sequence covering server and enterprise network services.

Assiniboine teaches in computer labs and a Cisco laboratory run in partnership with Cisco Systems, using both physical and virtualised environments, and students need a computer with internet at home. The course content supports CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco certifications, and the college is a Pearson VUE and Prometric Authorized Testing Centre. An eight-week unpaid practicum places you in a computer-related workplace. The diploma is also recognised under the Canadian Armed Forces NCMSTEP training plan.

Network Administration Technology graduates work in in-house IT departments and for IT service companies. Typical roles are network administrator, systems administrator, network support technician, help desk analyst, IT support specialist and field service technician. The diploma suits logical, patient troubleshooters who like understanding how systems connect and who are willing to keep studying for vendor certifications as network technology changes.