The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Accenture have launched a training service to address the claimed open networking skills gap.

Called TIP Academy, it will offer courses that centre on a various open, disaggregated solutions currently under development. The aim is to create a workforce that is better equipped to design, develop, test and deploy this budding new technology.

In addition to Accenture, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom have signed up to be charter clients of TIP Academy, and as such will add its courses to their employee training programmes.

“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 organisations who share the common goal of closing the knowledge and skills gap related with open disaggregated solutions,” said TIP chairman Yago Tenorio, in a statement this week.

TIP Academy’s first curriculum focuses on Open RAN, and offers 20 modules beginning with the fundamentals, and advancing right the way up to Open RAN system integration, total cost of ownership (TCO) and business evolution. Enrollees access course material through an interactive, multimedia e-learning platform that also offers self-assessment and testing. At the end of the course, participants receive a TIP Academy certificate. TIP also plans to maintain a list of organisations whose employees have completed its course.

It’s an interesting time for Open RAN because as TIP points out, there is a lot of momentum behind the technology, and implementations are underway in multiple markets. Indeed, just this week, Samsung’s Open RAN software and radio units were selected by Dish Network for its upcoming and cloud-native 5G service. In the UK, the government reiterated its commitment to Open RAN by publishing a set of principles it thinks the industry should adhere to in order to make the Open RAN dream a reality. TIP itself claims that Open RAN could add $285 billion to global GDP in the 10 years to 2030.

Despite all the hype though, there is still widespread scepticism about whether it can perform at the required level, and deliver on its promise to reduce network costs and shake up the vendor market. TIP Academy could go some way to addressing that scepticism, training engineers who can get the best out of Open RAN. Perhaps most importantly, the courses it offers are vendor and operator neutral.

“TIP Academy fulfils 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,” said Vishal Mathur, global head of engagement of TIP. “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.”

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