NPA Cyber Security is now validated

I came into good news this morning. The convenor of the Validation Panel (Professor Bill Buchanan) has lifted the conditions imposed at the recent validation event. So we can now proceed to operationalising the awards. We hope to have the NPAs available to centres from 1 August. Please note that the component units are available now.

Scotland is the first country to develop this kind of national qualification for schools. We won’t be the last. It seeks to fill a critical (and global) skills shortage. A recent report stated that there will be two million job vacancies (internationally) in this field by 2017.

We’ve had lots of interest in these new qualifications from schools and colleges. I am expecting a number of centres to offer the award next session and significantly more the following year. In spite of the development being done rapidly (the Deputy First Minister announced it on 5 February), we are pleased with how it has turned out. I hope that you like it too.

The launch event takes place on 1 October. You can register now. Please contact Helen if you want to know more about these awards.

Bobby Published 21/07/2015