Nokia today announced that it is launching the first in a series of professional level certifications to train and certify industry professionals on end-to-end 5G networks, from network access to application management.

The Nokia Bell Labs End-to-End 5G Networking Certification program is vendor-agnostic and provides a deeper knowledge of 5G networking with a focus on Access, Core and Transport domains. It is designed for business and technology professionals as a follow-up to Nokia’s popular foundation-level 5G Associate Certification that was introduced in February.

By gaining a greater understanding of the concepts and frameworks of end-to-end 5G networking, companies will benefit from faster realization of 5G strategies and the competitive advantage of providing high-value 5G services.

Marcus Weldon, Nokia CTO and President of Nokia Bell Labs, said: “The future of work is about workers in every industry being augmented with the knowledge that is most relevant to them for every task, at every point in time. A key enabler of that future is 5G networking technologies that will form the digital fabric of this future. Gaining knowledge of how end-to-end 5G networks will impact every possible aspect of our connected world is essential to select the right strategy for your business. So, whether you work in a communications service provider or an enterprise or an industry vertical that is on the leading edge of digitization, I encourage you to take advantage of the 5G Networking Course and the new Professional level Program that is being made available now.”

Sergio Fasce, Vice President of NokiaEDU, the learning and development branch of Nokia, said: “NokiaEDU and Nokia Bell Labs are working together to offer the next phase of our innovative end-to-end 5G certification program. The 5G Networking course is equally suitable for business leaders, technology professionals and University students providing detailed information to enable strategic decisions, while retaining the engaging format and practical use cases of the Foundation course.”

The End-to-End 5G Networking course is now available from the Nokia website, along with the associate-level Foundational Certification. Additional professional level certifications and courses will follow later in 2020. Each course has approximately an 8-hour run time which can be completed at the learner’s own pace.

Nokia is uniquely positioned to present this end-to-end perspective as it is the only vendor with a product and services portfolio that covers all 5G network elements, including radio, core, cloud and transport as well as management, automation and security. This offers operators and enterprises across all vertical industries (manufacturing, public safety, transportation, energy, etc.) a simple and efficient step-wise upgrade to existing radio access, core and transport domains, helping customers identify a faster path to 5G. Approximately 60% of Nokia’s 5G customers have selected more than just New Radio from its end-to-end portfolio.

Nokia’s momentum in 5G is underpinned by the company’s continued leadership in cellular technology R&D and standardization. In March 2020, Nokia announced it had declared more than 3,000 5G patent families as essential for 5G, less than six months after declaring its previous milestone at 2,000 patent declarations Driven by world-class innovations from across the organization, including the renowned Nokia Bell Labs, it has played a leading role in contributing technologies to 5G, working with 3GPP to establish 5G standards and enabling the rollout of 5G networks. Nokia is now contributing towards the next set of standards, Release 16 and Release 17.