As summer approaches and students complete their final classes and exams, things are calming down at university.
We will soon be preparing to celebrate exam success over the summer, as well as the exciting prospect of enrolling all our new students in September.
The end of term here at college is traditionally reserved for dedicated CPD time.
This year, in addition to our structured training and development opportunities, the college team has the opportunity to take a dip in one of the many free online courses that can be taken at their own pace.
There are courses that are suitable for a wide range of workers in every sector, for example mental health awareness, stress management.
But there is also a new range of more specialized online courses that may surprise you.
The Ethical Hacking Certificate is part of the growing cybersecurity curriculum here at the university.
This fully online Ethical Hacker Practice Lab provides you with the necessary platform to gain practical skills and understand various hacking tools and techniques.
Ethical hacking involves an authorized attempt to gain what would normally be unauthorized access to a computer system, application, or data.
Conducting an ethical hack involves duplicating the strategies and actions of malicious attackers.
This practice helps identify vulnerabilities that can then be resolved before a malicious attacker can exploit them.
Computer student Connor Rosindale, 18, said: “Some of these skills and methods that we teach can only be used in situations where you are given the authority.
“Understanding different attack methods helps us better understand how to defend against them.”
In college, computer students got a great taste for cybersecurity by trying a series of new workshops.
Gareth Day, Head of Digital and Creative Industries: “It is an honor as a university of applied sciences to play a key role in developing and mentoring students in the cyber sector; discover opportunities, learn weekly from industry professionals and a wide variety of companies around the world and refine their skills using simulated scenarios on Immersive Labs.
“These simulated scenarios bring students even closer to knowing what working in the industry is really like.”
You’ll work in the same simulated scenarios as part of the new Ethical Hacking Certificate and the other online digital courses in the suite, using virtual servers so you can experiment and break things without consequences to learn.
For more information, visit southdevon.ac.uk to discover which online short courses are available to start now.
Written by Conrad Saunders, Computer Science and IT Program Coordinator at South Devon College.
