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 | Digital Divide Best Practices |  | |
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Consider Your Costs
Once you set goals, assemble a group of advocates,
and determine your target audience and lab location, you begin to
consider the cost to make the Networking Academy a reality. What will
it take to open the doors and run for three years? What will it cost
to sustain the program long-term?
The Cisco Cost Calculator provides a spreadsheet to help estimate
the cost of CCNA training for 30 students. The cost calculator is
available on the Networking Academy Community Server. It lists all
items necessary to run a class for 30 students with a cost breakdown
by semester.
Other start up costs may include:
 facility improvements (carpeting, furniture, electrical wiring,
security etc.)
staff training, recruiting, and equipment and service contracts
(Smartnet)
marketing costs (brochures, web site development, advertisement,
etc.)
The Cisco
Academy Start Guide provides the implementation process and
your Regional Networking Academy has estimates and resources for
budgeting guidance at a local level. Partners and service providers
involved in the various aspects of your program's success can also
provide budget review and estimates.
These are the monthly or annual costs to keep the lab running. They
include:
services such as Internet service, utilities, rents, telephone
lines, etc.
consumables such as student supplies, office supplies, training
supplies
staff and outside contractor or consulting services
upgrades for both software and hardware
In addition to a program coordinator and instructor, digital divide
programs often hire other staff to provide additional services such
as: recruiter, career specialist, admissions specialist, soft skills
instructors, job developer, IT support specialist. They may also
incur costs in providing legal, health care, or compliance services.
When you think you have a complete list of services, run it by experienced
non-profit business managers to make sure the list is complete and
the estimates are accurate. Plan to review the operational costs
each year and look for ways to cut spending or better allocate resources.
"The first cycle we used instructors for all our soft skills.
When we realized that the students are comfortable learning with
technology, we decided to provide some of the basic soft skills
via computer. This really helps with personnel costs. We also
saved on texts. We realized that a significant number of them
didn't really use the guides. Now instead of buying everyone a
text, we have a library where those that want can borrow them
for the course."
Chris Viteritti
Borough of Manhattan Community College
New York, NY
Part of your cost planning should include expecting the unexpected.
"This is a grant-subsidized program for low-income individuals
so we try to budget as much as possible to be covered by grants.
We thought we included everything. Here's what we left out: cost
of A+ and CCNA certification exams, multiple seating for the exams,
clothing for a few that had absolutely no access to interview
attire, drug screening we didn't anticipate we would be doing,
and miscellaneous replacement items such as our stolen fax machine.
The one thing you can count on is that you'll have a few surprise
costs. So it is wise to create a budget that has flexibility."
Acte Maldonado, Dean
Borough of Manhattan Community College
New York, NY
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