Become a certified cyber security professional

The field of cyber security is incredibly broad, covering a far greater spectrum of skills and roles than people might expect.

There are roles which are very people-driven, roles which focus heavily on risk and compliance, roles which revolve around tech, and many others. 

Common role-types our learners secure:

• Security Operations Centre Analyst (SOC Analyst)
  A role where you actively monitor networks and systems to identify unauthorised actions by users or potential intrusion by an attacker.
  
  
• Cyber Security Consultancy
  A role where you normally work for a larger organisation and help customers on a variety of different cyber security projects.
  
  
• Information Assurance & Governance
  A role where you might be tasked to ensure compliance within agreed cyber security policies, manage and assess digital risk, support internal audits, and more.
  
  
• Cyber Security Generalist
  A varied role which combines multiple specialisms into one. From threat intelligence and SOC analysis, through to ensuring compliance with cyber security policy and delivering security awareness training.
  
  

You can explore the 16 cyber security specialisms from the UK Cyber Council here: https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/careers-and-learning/cyber-career-framework/

As of spring 2023, over 270 CAPSLOCK learners have started jobs in cyber security. Here are the most common areas they're working in:

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In November 2022, an education charity advertised a job vacancy for an Information Security GRC Analyst role, and displayed "Cyber Bootcamps, such as CAPSLOCK" at the top of their desired 'Qualifications and Experience' list. This is one small example of the increasing demand for CAPSLOCK talent that we've seen over the past couple of years.

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Who is hiring CAPSLOCK learners?

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Our incredible learners have been landing jobs with a diverse range of employers, including some of the UK’s largest and most well-known companies such as ITV, BT, Jaguar Land Rover, PwC and Asda.

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The combination of our holistic curriculum and careers-outcome focus is unlocking the type of cyber talent that is in such high demand in the industry. The feedback from those interviewing and hiring our learners has been outstanding.

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Clearly, the UK has a large untapped pool of potential cyber talent in its general workforce. By allowing people from all backgrounds to retrain in cyber security, we are bringing fresh faces into the industry, all of whom have a wealth of transferable skills from other sectors.

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When you study with CAPSLOCK, you have the opportunity to gain 5 industry certifications in addition to the core content of the course.

If you pass the CAPSLOCK bootcamp, you become a "Certified Cyber Security Practitioner" and are awarded the Ce-CSP certification, which is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Information Security. This is our in-house certification, it's widely regarded in the industry, and it's not available anywhere else.

You also have the option to obtain four external certifications (CISMP, Security+, CCSK and ISO27001 Requirements). We say 'option to' because it's not mandatory that you sit all the external certs if you don't want to. All 4 external certs require you to sit an exam (the cost of which is included with the cost of the course), some will be sat during class time and some are sat in your own time. 

We chose these 4 because they complement the content of our curriculum and demonstrate a breadth of different cyber security principles. However, we see them as a nice 'extra' for our learners - the vast majority of the learning and value comes from the course itself.

CAPSLOCK exists to help people switch careers to cyber security, so we do everything we can to ensure our learners are well supported in their cyber job searches.

To date (early 2023), 302 people have graduated from CAPSLOCK since we launched in 2021, and over 250 of them have been hired into cyber roles. So, currently 71% of our graduates are working in cyber security, and our careers team continue to support all current learners and graduates who are looking for roles.

Our first cohort (which graduated in autumn 2021) has a current employment rate of 81%, our second cohort has an employment rate of 75%, our third cohort has an employment rate of 71%, and as time moves on these numbers should continue to rise as more of our graduates find roles with our help.

It's important to remind people that the hundreds of CAPSLOCK alumni who are now in cyber security roles come from an incredible diverse backgrounds. Many of them have never worked in cyber, IT or tech related fields before. If they can do it, so can you!

The cyber security sector continues to grow rapidly with many opportunities available for those new to the industry. CAPSLOCK also continues to develop direct partnerships with UK cyber security employers who actively recruit our learners.

One of CAPSLOCK's main goals is to help our learners and alumni launch brand new careers in the cyber industry, which is why we offer an extensive career support programme as part of our reskilling bootcamps.

The CAPSLOCK Careers Team are on hand to help you at every stage of your job search.

They run a dedicated career support curriculum throughout the course, delivering valuable sessions and workshops around searching for roles, optimising CVs and LinkedIn profiles, preparing for interviews, and much more.

They also offer 1-2-1 careers guidance sessions to help learners identify which cyber roles will be a good fit for them, and use unique job prospecting tools to guide learners' career searches and present any suitable vacancies from our growing network of employer partners.

Our Careers Team works very closely with CAPSLOCK's official employment partners, giving you exclusive access to a growing network of cyber employers who regularly hire CAPSLOCK learners.

For more specific information about landing your first cyber role, please see the Employment Outcomes section of the FAQ.