Cyber Security Apprenticeships — Inspiring or Inspired?

During the European-wide lockdown of 2020, I was living in France and found myself somewhat stranded both geographically and professionally outside of the UK. Like many organisations, a huge business continuity process kicked in and our operations changed to reflect the new online way of working and, in our case, delivering training courses.

As lockdowns ebbed and flowed in the UK, the French stuck to their guns and I was physically unable to move back across the international border to conduct my normal work. At this point, I was given the opportunity to venture into the Apprenticeship side of the business to head the Cyber Security curriculum and start work on the new-look Level 3 and Level 4 Cyber Security Apprenticeship programs which were due to launch in 2021. This was a working-from-home job.

I admit that it was with some hesitation that I took this challenge on – but, looking back, it was one of the smartest moves I had ever made.

The new role put me in a team of Subject Matter Experts who are all at the top of their game – Data Analysis, Infrastructure, Software Development, and ICT, and as a team we bounced off each other to standardise our program development.

The common denominator to everything we undertook was the success and well-being of our apprentices and the design of a program that allowed them to flourish in their respective occupations and become an asset to the organisations that took them on.

Over the past three years, I have had the pleasure to support over 100 apprentices across all levels and areas of industry and have seen how quickly they flourish under the guidance of a great In-Work Mentor and the support of an Apprenticeship training provider.

However, my real passion is being in front of a class and delivering subjects that help to sow the seed of knowledge and watch it develop into something great.

I am lucky enough to have the autonomy within my role to develop, design and deliver my own bespoke courses. The control freak within me means that I insist on being the instructor for these courses and, although it looks like I am doing the business a favour in setting this time aside, the benefit is all mine.

Both course deliveries (Level 3 Employment of Cryptography and Level 4 Introduction to Cyber Security) involve less ‘death by PowerPoint’ and more conversation and delegate interaction. Both courses come at a point in the program where the apprentice has had ample time to get their feet under the table at work and start to make an impact.

My job is to layer in new knowledge and skills in accordance with a lesson plan but, more importantly, to help apprentices use the knowledge they have acquired so far to the benefit of their role and organisation. Knowledge is great, but it means nothing if it doesn’t have an impact!

As an example – within both deliveries, delegates need to conduct research from a wide variety of resources, which is relevant to their specific organisation or industry sector.

On the Cryptography course, they research recent vulnerabilities or issues which have involved cryptographic systems and then have to assess the risk and give a presentation in any format of their choice on what the risk is and how they could use controls to manage it. The exercise always results in further conversations and research being conducted.

The Cyber Security Introduction course includes a module on threat horizon scanning – where apprentices must conduct a cyber threat trend analysis in their given sector and then assess the future trend based on their analysis and any changes that they predict in technology, world events, and other relevant factors. Again, they must create a report and present this in a format of their choice to the rest of the class and take questions on their findings and analysis.

Every time I run these classes, I am blown away by the results they produce. No one class is ever the same and, in all cases, they apply a level of professionalism, ethical responsibility and enthusiasm which is inspiring. The research and reports they create also allow them to supplement a portfolio of evidence which is part of their apprenticeship assessment.

Whether it is from the classroom or as part of my supporting role as SME, this work gives me the opportunity to interact with Cyber Security professionals who are at the start of their careers and, in most cases, will become the stars of the future who I have no doubt will lead us within their respective fields of Cyber Security.

Do I inspire the next generation of Cyber Security professionals, or do they inspire me?

I think it’s the latter.