A former bartender and a military intelligence operator are the first to be offered roles at cyber security companies after graduating from the HM Government-backed Cyber Retraining Academy.
The academy, funded by the Government’s National Cyber Security Programme, began on January 23 and concludes this week with a graduation ceremony in London.
Conor Kelly, a former bartender and Joel Potts, a languages graduate are among those to be offered jobs in advance of the programme finishing.
Some 55 UK talented cyber amateurs were originally chosen in a nationwide search to undergo the academy’s free training. Trained by industry practitioners from SANS Institute, the students have covered a cross-section of cyber skills and have graduated with two separate Global Information Assurance Certifications, an internationally renowned cyber security qualification.
Despite having no previous experience of cyber security, many students have achieved 90pc or above in their GIAC tests, placing them in the top 5pc of GIAC students worldwide. The aim was to connect course graduates to industry and, through an online portal, offer UK cyber security employers a chance to track students’ performance and progress. Graduates are now interviewing for, or have been offered jobs with organisations including the NCA, JP Morgan, Fujitsu, Amazon, e2e, Huawei and the DFID (Dept for International Development).
Students completed exercises in real-world scenarios, including how to respond to virus outbreaks, studied the ‘psychology’ of hackers, built watertight business networks, found vulnerabilities in Internet of Things (IoT) devices and learnt how to help firms tackle the most common threats.
Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said: “We are determined to create a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone and make the UK the safest place to do business online. We have recently published our Digital Strategy which sets our how we will achieve this and, through our National Cyber Security Strategy, have committed to invest £1.9 billion in cyber security over five years. The Cyber Retraining Academy is a key part of this work and it’s fantastic to see the first students graduate and begin to move into cyber security roles in industry. They will bring a diverse range of skills and experiences from different walks of life to help the fight against cyber threats and attacks.”
UK Managing Director at SANS Institute Stephen Jones said: “The Cyber Retraining Academy has been a huge success. Our assessment process uncovered more than 50 individuals with no prior cyber security experience, but who possessed the traits required to succeed in the profession. Now, after eight weeks of intensive training they are qualified and ready to embark on a new career path, working in vital roles within many of the UK’s most important organisations.”
Visit: https://www.cyber-academy.co.uk/retraining. For more details email: [email protected].
