How Cyber Security Apprenticeship can make you 'job-ready' | Cyber Security Training Courses

There are now more ways than ever for people looking to start a career in cyber security to get into the sector. As well as a range of academic courses at both undergrad and postgrad level and professional qualifications tailored for entry-level positions, an increasingly popular pathway for many people is a cyber security apprenticeship.

This offers a mix of hands-on and classroom-based learning to ready you for the world of work. And one of the many advantages of this type of route into the sector is that it can prepare you much better for a full-time role later - making you more 'job ready' than many of your fellow candidates. So how does an apprenticeship do this?

Hands-on learning

One of the biggest advantages of opting for an apprenticeship as your route into a cyber security career is the hands-on experience this offers, which is something classroom learning alone can't replicate. This not only teaches you the technical skills you need, but also how to apply them to real-world scenarios.

You can also use this experience to identify any particular areas within the cyber security sector you'd like to work in and focus your education accordingly. There are a range of cyber security training schemes that can help you specialise in certain disciplines, such as risk management, cloud or hardware security, to name but a few. 

Whether this takes place within the course itself or inspires you to look for more specialised training courses elsewhere, it's a great way to identify the parts of the job that interest you most.

Apprenticeships also help you hone your non-technical, softer skills. These are vital to success in your career, but often aren't considered in more classroom-based courses. Skills such as communicating effectively with different departments, problem solving, working under pressure and organisational skills can all be developed as part of an apprenticeship scheme.

Impressing future employers

Even if you don't end up continuing in a full-time role at the end of your apprenticeship, having this type of education on your CV will often be attractive to other potential employers, as it can indicate that you're ready to step into a role and hit the ground running.

For example, government-funded research that interviewed a range of employers found one challenge is candidates who overstate their skills and knowledge. But if you've got a completed apprenticeship to back this up, this serves as proof of your real-world experience that many other candidates may not have. 

This means you can stand out from the crowd and employers can hire with confidence, knowing they won't have to start from scratch to prepare entry-level employees for the realities of the job, provided your apprenticeship is of a suitable level to what the firm is looking for.

Think an apprenticeship might be the way into cyber security for you? Take a look at the range of courses we have available today.