The UK’s Institute of Coding (IoC), which launched in December 2018, says that it has now signed up over 32,000 learners in little over a year – including to free cybersecurity training modules such “Basics of Network Security“, which can be used as a building block towards an MSc in Cyber Security at Coventry University,
The news represents welcome success for the Institute, which was founded with £20 million of funding from Theresa May’s government; a figure then matched by a further £20 million from industry champions like Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft.
The IoC’s course catalogue gives a flavour of new and upcoming units, including a range of free cybersecurity training programmes. (The catalogue aggregates the 180+ courses from the Institute’s partners in one place for the first time.)
Free Cybersecurity Training
The Institute works with higher education partners to deliver bite-sized courses for adult learners, with a focus on skills that employers will welcome, amid a growing recognition that static degrees often provide skills that are redundant (owing to the fast-moving nature of tech) by the time graduates hit the labour market.
As the IOC’s chairman earlier told Computer Business Review: “Saying come to one of the university buildings and stay here for three years doesn’t work… [and] there is no point us saying #here is a great course, good luck see you'”.
Those seeking to take the free network security course will need a PC capable of running Virtual Machines (VMs), with at least a dual core CPU, 8GB of memory and about 100GB of hard disk space to store the VMs.
Participants will need to download and install VMware Workstation Playe, which is free for non-commercial/educational use, and be familiar with core Linux commands, input/output redirecting and piping, file manipulation, basic network configuration and user account management, the Institute said.
See also: Fix England’s “Fragmented, Centralised” Skills System Urgently or Face a 2.5 Million Worker Deficit: LGA
