The skills gap in cybersecurity is a much-discussed problem in the industry. Diversity is another issue that employers and educational institutions are trying to tackle, but changes are somewhat slow to come. And as the economy moves further into the digital age, it was clear to see people need help changing their career.
These were the premises that brought Lorna and Andrea, the co-founders of CAPSLOCK and both former university lecturers, to assemble a world-class team of educators, cybersecurity professionals and business gurus with the objective to rethink education.
With a number of options to suit anyone’s commitment and wallet, CAPSLOCK courses are designed to be as inclusive and accessible as possible. Advocating for under-represented groups to join the exciting and rewarding industry that is cybersecurity, CAPSLOCK supports women, BAME, and those who are neuro-diverse to obtain an outstanding, outcome-focussed qualification that prepares them for the job market.
But let’s hear it in their own words:
Why does CAPSLOCK work?
Firstly, we don’t judge applications on their work and educational background. You don’t need a degree, you don’t need experience, you just need to be hungry to learn. Our application process requires our applicants to complete some carefully curated pre-course work to bring them up to speed with cyber fundamentals. If you can do the pre-course, you can do our full course. Simple as that.
This merit-based system opens the door to people who may have been excluded from other methods of education due to their background or lack of experience.
How are you making CAPSLOCK affordable and accessible to everyone?
We don’t charge upfront fees. Instead, we use Income Share Agreements to enable our learners to pay for the course only after they’re employed and earning a solid wage. The traditional financial barriers associated with education and training often prevent people from changing their careers. We are removing these barriers with Income Share Agreements, making our cyber retraining courses accessible to people who might otherwise not have been able to re-skill.
What makes CAPSLOCK’s curriculum special?
Our curriculum is, quite simply, outstanding. We’re not teaching people how to formulaically pass an exam. We’re not training people to all learn the exact same stock knowledge by wrote. Instead, we’re using the proven methodology of Team-Based Learning and simulated workplace scenarios to instil a genuine passion and curiosity for cyber in our learners.
The breadth of our curriculum encompasses a wide range of cybersecurity fundamentals, from understanding how cyber fits into a business through to penetration testing and security operations. Attendance to our courses can clearly equip a person with the desirable skills and knowledge needed to make them employable in cyber, and in a much shorter time than they might expect.
The course also includes the opportunity to gain up to five industry certifications, including CISMP and CompTIA Security+. The exams for these certifications, however, don’t occur until after the mid-way point of the courses, so haven’t yet cropped up for our learners. Many people are concerned that they couldn’t start a career in cyber without relevant qualifications. However, you can land an entry-level cybersecurity role without them, as long as your determination to learn is apparent.
Do you have any case studies or statistics about employment success after graduating from CAPSLOCK?
Seeing as our two current cohorts are our inaugural ones, we haven’t been able to answer this question, as we don’t have any graduates… yet. However, what we now have is a case study of a learner without any prior cyber work experience, who comes from a dance background, and who accepted a cyber job offer just 7 weeks into our Part Time course (You can read Mikey’s story here).
For more information about CAPSLOCK and how you can join our ground-breaking retraining courses, visit https://capslock.ac.
