I spent Groundhog Day in Cisco’s New York offices with 70 students representing the cream of the crop of high schools that are a part of the Academy, a program designed to teach students how to build and maintain networks. The participating schools partner with Cisco to offer basic network administration certification. If it sounds like the kind of day where you might catch a few Zs while someone talked about routers, think again. The program made computer networking seem glamorous, sexy, and lucrative to a group of students who don’t often get to see high tech in action.

John Rullan, the charismatic teacher in Queens and director for the NYC Department of Education’s Cisco Academy Program, says the Groundhog Job Shadow Day is designed to let the students take what they’ve learned in the classroom and watch how it’s applied in the real world. A combination of technology demonstrations including tele-presence (video conferencing) along with inspirational speeches from Cisco employees and college recruiters motivates students to continue studying computer networking and receive their advanced network certifications after high school. Talk of the jobs that await them on Wall Street, universities, and Fortune 500 companies clearly captures the imagination of these students. After the keynote speakers, students spent the rest of the day working side by side with Cisco’s employees. Cisco is about to enter into the consumer market with a major presence during the next year and, according to Gene Longo of the Cisco Networking Academy Program, Cisco is going to need certified network technicians at places like Best Buy’s Geek Squad and Circuit City’s firedog as well. Longo says that people who think tech jobs are leaving the country and heading overseas seriously underestimate how much demand there is for skilled network technicians at the local level.

Cisco has developed curricula for both educators and students; the program operates in 160 schools worldwide. Maybe next Groundhog Day more IT companies will hop on the job shadowing bandwagon.

A study conducted after last year’s Cisco Shadowing Day found that teens who have job shadowed are more likely to seek employment while in high school and more likely to believe they’ll complete college.