Details revealed: new cyber degree apprenticeship for Gloucestershire

Since announcing the launch of their brand new cyber degree apprenticeship programme, Gloucestershire College and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) have been putting preparations in place for providing the highest quality cyber training for their new recruits from September 2020.

Building on the experience gained with the College’s current digital apprenticeship programs, this degree takes the best of college and University training along with skills development in the workplace.

The course will be suitable for cyber security technical professionals operating in business or technology/engineering functions across a range of sectors including critical national infrastructure (such as energy, transport, water, finance). It will deliver in-depth technical training across four years in core areas including Malware, Threats and Defensive Programming, Risk Assessment and Computer Architecture.

Apprentices will have the opportunity to practice ethical hacking and develop their skills at preventing cyber-attack in the College’s innovative training rooms which are equipped with state of the art cyber equipment.

Completing apprentices will not only have an honours degree, but four years of experience, making them sought after and highly valuable employees.

Matt Burgess, Principal of GC, commented: “This is a transformational time for Cheltenham as it cements itself as the cyber capital for the nation; the cyber business park is a much anticipated development for the county. Our partnership with UWE Bristol to deliver cyber degree apprenticeships will ensure that we can support organisations by providing a strong talent pipeline of highly skilled individuals as we train the next cyber generation.”

Professor Steve West, VC at UWE agreed: “We are delighted to extend our degree offering for local Gloucestershire students at Gloucestershire College’s Cheltenham Campus. This is particularly significant at a time when strategically, Cheltenham is establishing itself as the cyber capital of the UK.”

CyNam are also showing their support for the introduction of the degree programme: “Since 2015 we have been providing opportunities for the best cyber security minds to meet with local SMEs and start-ups. The need for skilled people to enter the industry and join these businesses is becoming more and more apparent. We are extremely pleased to see that the College is putting so much investment into this and other computing programmes. We encourage local businesses who are short of skills in this area to get in touch with the College and speak to them about funding available to help train new and existing staff” (Chris Dunning-Walton, Chairman & Director, CyNam)

For more information on the course, including how the College can help your business recruit cyber apprentices or how you can apply to become a cyber apprentice, contact the GC Business Hub on 01452 563400 or email business.hub@gloscol.ac.uk.