The Defence Cyber Academy: A new era of how we train, educate and re-skill cyber specialists

The Defence Cyber Academy (DCA), based within the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, is responsible for training Defence’s cyber specialists. It also plays a role in educating non-technical leaders on the importance of cyberspace and cyber risk. Wing Commander Paul Withers will provide an overview of the Defence Cyber Academy’s role and he will discuss the activities that contribute to developing skilled cyber operators and analysts for their front-line roles. He will introduce a continuum of cyber training: talent identification; foundational skills; role-specific skills; (vendor) tool-specific skills; small team training; and collective training.

He will then talk about how DCA uses technology solutions in cyber training. The Academy aims to offer different means and methods of delivery to suit individual learning styles and provide solutions to support accessibility and neuro differences; this includes the use of gamification in training. This requires the integration of a range of technologies that support both classroom based and online training. Remotely accessible technical solutions also enable students to consolidate their learning before sitting the assessments required to qualify them for their roles.

DCA, and wider Defence, enjoy partnerships with industry that provide training tools and technologies that integrate into an underpinning technical infrastructure. The best training tools also provide decision quality metrics on individual student performance and trends on the effectiveness of a particular product, lesson, or labs in supporting learning. The talk aims to stimulate a discussion on the role technology plays in cyber learning.