CAPSLOCK and the Real-Life Fatima
How a professional dancer became a cyber security professional in just 7 weeks with our career-changing bootcamps.
Mikey Barrett, a professional dancer by trade, is currently 7 weeks into our 26-week cyber retraining course, and he has just accepted a cyber job offer. Mikey will be working as a SOC Analyst for a cloud security service provider.
Unlike the infamous Fatima advert, which was a bungled attempt from the government to entice more people to retrain in cyber, Mikey represents the real people who are truly invested in reskilling into this exciting field.
Talking about his incredible transition from dancer to cyber security professional, Mikey said:
“A year to the day since I finished my last contract as a professional dancer, I received and signed my first professional contract in cyber security. I couldn’t have done it without the incredible team and training from CAPSLOCK. The training and company vision is unrivalled, and I would suggest anyone looking to transition in to cyber to check them out. I’m only a short way through my journey with them but already I’ve learnt and applied so much new knowledge!”
We couldn’t be prouder of Mikey for this fantastic achievement. It reflects his tireless hard work and his insatiable appetite for learning. We are not at all surprised that he’s been hired in such a relatively short time.
It also reflects the CAPSLOCK ethos that anybody can transition into a cyber career, regardless of their prior experience, with the right support and education. And as we’ve mentioned before, the transferrable skills that Mikey will be bringing with him are highly sought after in the cyber industry, he just needed a way to get his foot in the door.
So, how does a beginner transition into cyber?
Our response to this, as proven by Mikey, is to join a CAPSLOCK course. Our intensive cyber security retraining bootcamps are a great way for people without a cyber background but with a passion for tech to switch careers into this field.
You can choose between the Full-Time schedule which runs during the day for 16 weeks, or the Part Time schedule which runs during the evenings for 26 weeks.
You can find more information about our admissions process and course schedules on our website.
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.
We also 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.
Secondly, 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 rote. 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 cyber security 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, as Mikey has demonstrated, you can land an entry-level cyber security role without them, as long as your determination to learn is apparent.
One of the most frequently asked questions we get asked by prospective learners is “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.
For more information about CAPSLOCK and how you can join our ground-breaking retraining courses, visit https://capslock.ac.
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