Cisco is spending "millions of dollars" on the academy program, says Scott Knell, Cisco's higher-education marketing manager in Santa Clara, Calif.

CNN: School-to-work programs: High hopes, low turnout

Ms. Gordon, the former IT manager, says the program showed her that it was customer-marketing experience, not financial know-how, she needed to move up.

WSJ: TI Battles a Line-Job Gender Gap