London, UK - Cyber Discovery, the UK government’s flagship cyber security training programme for young people, will remain open to participants until June 30th this year.
Previously scheduled to end in March, an extension agreement has been reached between the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and SANS Institute, the programme delivery partner. The agreement means that SANS will continue to provide access to Cyber Discovery’s online gamified learning environment and SANS Foundations training course for thousands of 13 to 18-year-olds and their teachers across the UK.
Cyber Discovery was created to help close a critical UK skills gap by encouraging more young people to pursue a career in cyber security. Now in its fourth year, the programme has seen more than 80,000 young people take part, developing their technical, real-world cyber skills and gaining career advice and insight from industry professionals. DCMS and SANS are keen to ensure that current participants are able to continue their learning journeys at a time when online, extracurricular youth training is of such importance.
Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said:
"We are leveling up the nation by opening up access to digital skills training so everyone can thrive in the modern workplace.
"By keeping the Cyber Discovery programme open long into the summer term, teachers and students will have more time to take up the online challenges, labs and other activities it has to offer. This is good news and will help to set young people up for an exciting career as one of the UK's digital defenders."
About SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. Today, SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of cyber security training and certification to professionals in government and commercial institutions world-wide. Renowned SANS instructors teach more than 60 courses at in-person and virtual cyber security training events and on demand. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates practitioner skills through more than 35 hands-on, technical certifications in cyber security. The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers a master’s degree, graduate certificates, and an undergraduate certificate in cyber security. SANS Security Awareness, a division of SANS, provides organizations with a complete and comprehensive security awareness solution, enabling them to easily and effectively manage their ‘human’ cybersecurity risk. SANS also delivers a wide variety of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, webcasts, podcasts, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system–the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to support and educate the global information security community. (https://www.sans.org)