University of Plymouth helps lead the way for cyber security degree apprenticeships

University of Plymouth students who have successfully completed the Cyber Security Analyst Degree Apprenticeship pathway will now gain automatic Associate Membership of the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP), the not-for-profit body dedicated to raising the standard of professionalism in information security. Plymouth is the first university to be accredited under this new scheme.

The IISP has been working closely with the UK Tech Partnership and other industry and academic bodies for several years to define the criteria for Cyber Security Degree Apprenticeships, which are based on the IISP Skills Framework. The Skills Framework is widely accepted as the de-facto standard for measuring the knowledge, experience and competency of information security and assurance professionals. It is also used by the UK Government to underpin its Certified Professional Scheme and by organisations to develop and benchmark their own in-house information security capabilities.

Prof. Steven Furnell, IISP Fellow and Head of School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics at Plymouth said, “I am delighted that students from our Cyber Security Analyst Degree Apprenticeship pathway will be able to graduate with such a clear endorsement of how their qualifications and experience are aligned to the needs of the profession.”

Dr Ismini Vasileiou, Programme Lead of DTS Cyber Security Analyst pathway and Equality and Diversity Faculty Chair, added, “It is exciting to be offering apprenticeships at the Higher Education level and working alongside the IISP will ensure that our graduates meet the future qualification and skills requirements to serve the profession. We are also committed to addressing the gender diversity challenges in the industry by attracting more females onto our courses.”

“There are two significant challenges currently facing the cyber security profession: a recognised skills shortage and the fact that almost all current practitioners have come into the profession from other disciplines. We are not building the profession from strong foundations,” said Peter Fischer, a Fellow of the IISP. “Cyber Security Degree Apprenticeships represent a major step towards addressing both challenges. The IISP is keen to support this career path into the industry and the University of Plymouth’s accreditation recognises that on graduation, individuals exceed the rigorous requirements for IISP Associate Membership.”

For more information on the University of Plymouth Degree Apprenticeships, go to: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/study/apprenticeships/digital-technology

About the IISP
The Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP) is a not-for-profit organisation, owned by its members, dedicated to raising the standard of professionalism in information security and the industry as a whole. The IISP does this through accrediting skills and competence, by sharing best practice and by providing a network of support and guidance on individual skill development. It speaks with an authoritative voice and its competency based memberships are widely recognised in the information security industry.

Working closely with the information security community, the IISP has a growing membership of over 2,800 individual members across private and government sectors, 45 Corporate Member Organisations and 20 Academic Partners.

At the heart of the Institute is the IISP Skills Framework ©2017 which is widely accepted as the de facto standard for measuring competency of information security professionals. The NCSC has taken this framework to underpin a range of certification schemes including the Certified Professional Scheme (CCP), for which the IISP is the leading certifying body and to develop syllabuses for Masters Degrees.  The skills framework is used extensively by our corporate members to benchmark and develop capability of their employees. It also been adopted by e-Skills UK to develop a National Occupational Standard for Information Security. The IISP also accredits training courses offered by commercial training providers against the Institute’s Skills Framework. This enables attendees to build knowledge in areas of the skills framework where they might have gaps and to gain hands-on experience.