The accreditation will mean that all attendees on the Axis Academy training courses in the UK will be eligible to receive BICSI ITS CECs (continued education credits) that prove an individuals’ continued professional development within the ICT sector. Axis is thought to be the first UK network video provider to have been certified by an IT-based trade affiliation as a suitable learning course for its members.

Steven Kenny, business development manager for the architecture and engineering programme at Axis Communications commented: “Axis has long since recognised that offering continual professional development training and education is vital to ensure that our industry can continue to benefit from the many technological innovations in the market.

“We are now taking this vision further and applying it to the ICT sector and opening up our hugely successful Academy to new IT channels that are looking to broaden their current offering with the introduction of surveillance systems and network video.

“As network video develops, we see new opportunities and challenges for ICT professionals. These companies and individuals are competent professionals when configuring and commissioning networks but may need training on the specifics of surveillance camera technology which can be a far cry from the analogue era in which they perhaps first developed their skills."

Since its inception nearly a decade ago, the Axis Academy has trained over 25,000 security professionals and system installers on all things to do with network video. It has grown significantly in that time to a major operation with over 40 trainers offering courses such as the Axis Certification Programme that allows skilled professionals to verify and validate their competence within surveillance solutions.

“By being part of the worldwide BICSI credentials programme, we are aligning ourselves with a globally-recognised organisation that espouses the importance of excellence in training and development across the ICT sector," continued Steven. “Like Axis in the US, we are now able to help IT professionals validate themselves within network video and also attain BICSI ITS CECs - we believe we are the first network video provider to be offering this, not least in the UK."

Already established in the US and with memberships in nearly 100 countries, BICSI provides information, education and knowledge assessment for over 23,000 individuals and companies across the ICT industry. The majority of BICSI members are RCDD qualified and so will derive the most value from Axis training courses as they will be credited against their BICSI continuing education credit hours.

Steven concluded: “As the global market leader in network video, Axis has already established itself as the ‘go to’ place for the surveillance industry. However, technology is constantly changing and with network video, the lines between what is traditionally seen as security and what is seen as IT are being increasing blurred.

“For example, there are parallels between video surveillance and VoIP. As legacy analogue CCTV systems are replaced with hybrid CCTV-IP or pure IP surveillance solutions, the type of equipment used is IP addressable, ethernet attached and PoE-enabled. This mirrors the kind of set-ups we see with wireless LANs and VoIP phone deployments, with which most IT resellers are already familiar with.

“With hot topics such as big data and cloud-based integration still in their relative infancy, there are plenty reasons for IT sellers and integrators to look at IP surveillance to boost their businesses. By being professionally trained by a reputable organisation IT integrators can start to reap the benefits from IP surveillance which is at the peak of the maturity curve."