Bletchley Park will train codebreaking teen hackers

Historic site will house the National College of Cyber Security

Bletchley Park is going to be the home once again to the brightest young minds in codebreaking and will host the UK’s first dedicated training academy for cybersecurity students.

The historical site is where Joan Clarke, Alan Turing and others broke the Germans’ Enigma code during World War Two is going to be the location of the National College of Cyber Security. Block G is going to obtain £5 million worth of renovations so that it can change and convert it into a state of the art training facility.

The college is going to be set up by Qufaro, they are a consortium of experts and industry figures focused on cybersecurity education, involving a group of people from BT security, the National Museum of Computing, the Bletchley Park Science and Innovation Centre and the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP).

They are saying around 40% of the college’s curriculum will be solely focused to cybersecurity, the rest of the time will be split between the following subjects:- Maths, Physics, Economics and Computer Science’s. The college will be a boarding school, a rough guide is that around 90% of pupils will be expected to live there during term-time.

Qufaro plans to energize the security in other ways. They are launching teacher training programmes around cybersecurity fundamentals along with EPQ (extended project qualification) in cybersecurity. There is going to be a £50 million cyber innovation fund set up to help encourage and support digital entrepreneurs.

“Existing initiatives cannot close the skills gap alone, so it is vital that we keep looking for new ways to build our talent pool,” said Lord Reid, former Home

“Our cyber education and innovation landscape is complex, disconnected and incomplete, putting us at risk of losing a whole generation of critical talent,” said Alastair MacWilson, chair of both Qufaro and the IISP.

“For those interested in forging a career in cyber, the current pathway is filled with excellent but disparate initiatives – each playing a vital role without offering a truly unified ecosystem of learning and support. By connecting what already exists and filling the gaps, Qufaro will make it easier for budding professionals to grow their cyber security skills at every stage of their journey, and contribute more to the sector as a result.”

The college will open in 2018, it has been designed to shorten the ever widening gap in the UK’s IT and infosec industries. It will provide training to “the UK’s most gifted 16-19 year old prodigies”. The school will draw from all backgrounds and locations in the UK, attendance and tuition will be free. Qufaro are keen to have around a third of its students to be female which is higher than the national average for STEM subjects.

Secretary and chair of the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at UCL. “By housing this new national gateway for cyber education and innovation at the home of British codebreaking and cryptography, I believe it will be able to harness the legacy of this historic location to inspire the next generation.”

“It is a fitting tribute to the incredible impact of all those who have worked at Bletchley Park over the years and I look forward to witnessing the impact I believe it can have on UK society.”