National Apprenticeship Week - Meet Noor, Cyber Security Apprentice

For National Apprenticeship Week, we’re showcasing some of our incredible apprentices at the Harris Federation. Earlier this week, we shared Bilal’s apprenticeship experience, who is coming to the end of his apprenticeship with us. Today we’re introducing you to our brand-new apprentice who joined Harris in January. 

Meet Noor Hamid, our new Cyber Security Apprentice. She is a former Harris student (Harris City Academy Crystal Palace) and has returned to the Federation to pursue a degree apprenticeship in Cyber Security. With a passion for technology, and a drive to make a difference, Noor is a fantastic addition to our Cyber Security Team. 

In this blog post, she shares her reasons for choosing an apprenticeship, her expectations for the 4-year programme, what her induction process at Harris has been like, and what she’s most excited about in the coming months. Her manager, Head of Information and Cyber Security, Jack Fowler, also discusses why he decided to recruit an apprentice and the future direction of his team.  

 

What will your role involve?

My role will cover several different areas of Cyber, and I’ll also be involved in a wide range of projects that the team are working on. One minute I’ll be doing operations and more technical work, and the next I’ll be doing third-party risk management, or training and cultural awareness pieces. 

It’s a very broad cyber role and I get to work with each of the team members and assist them, but I will also get to lead on some of the projects. In the future, I’ll also be doing more mentorship and presentations.

 

What were you doing before working here?

I did my A-levels at Harris Crystal Palace in Biology, Chemistry, and Spanish. But after deciding not to pursue medicine anymore, I took a gap year, and during that time, I learnt to code by doing a Python course online. I then got an internship in Lisbon where I worked in web development and SEO (search engine optimisation). And from there I was thinking that maybe I should consider this career in tech more seriously, so I started considering roles at different companies, and eventually found this one.

 

Why did you choose to do an apprenticeship?

There were a couple of reasons why I liked the idea of an apprenticeship compared to university. I really liked the idea of being able to build my network from day 1, whereas at university you can be limited by only certain events or even waiting until graduation. And I’m really looking forward to taking part in projects from the start, for example here at Harris, I’ve helped implement MFA (multi-factor authentication) tokens for students who don’t have access to mobile phones and ensuring that security is accessible to all the students.

There’s also lots of mentoring opportunities; both to be mentored by others and to provide mentorship. And it’s great that I can be paid whilst getting my degree too, and don’t have to worry about student loans. And having one study day a week so I can just focus on my assignments will be really useful.

 

Why did you choose Harris?

I was looking at other organisations but there was a reason I chose Harris. Coming from a Harris school, and whilst studying there, it’s where I grew as a person, and I had a really good experience with the teachers and the senior leadership teams. So, with my role here, I see it as an opportunity to both work in a field that is interesting to me and give back to the place that helped me grow. 

 

What interests you about cyber security?

The thing I love most about cyber security is that the field is constantly growing and there are always going to be new things to learn. There are always going to be new types of threats and different ways that attackers are evolving so we will have to evolve with them. It won’t ever feel like the same old job, and I won’t stagnate. 

 

 

What are you hoping to get from the apprenticeship?

One of the main things is getting my degree which I’m looking forward to. And I am excited about the ability to immediately apply what I’m learning into a real-world setting; so, there’s the academic side and learning the concept, but I can implement that and practice it straight away. 

Otherwise, I’m trying to stay open-minded as it’s only month 1. I just want to focus on gaining as much knowledge as possible about the different areas in cyber security, and see which ones align with me most, and see what I enjoy learning. 

 

How has your experience been so far?

It’s been really good, I had a very smooth onboarding process with the recruitment team. And then my manager is super lovely as well, and I can tell he just wants me to grow and learn, and he’ll give me opportunities to try things on my own but with lots of support too. Everyone is really nice, and people will go out of their way to help you. 

 

What are you most looking forward to on your apprenticeship?

I’m really looking forward to my first school visit and being able to see the impact we can have first-hand, and the first opportunity to present to the students about cyber and the social impact work. I’m really looking forward to the presentations, whether that be in schools or to the other head office departments. I really enjoy that kind of stuff but it’s kind of out of my comfort zone too, and it’s good to keep being pushed forward. In terms of projects, I’m currently really excited to learn more about security in the cloud. 

 

We also spoke to Jack Fowler, Head of Information and Cyber Security about his thoughts on having an apprentice in the team, and what he hopes Noor will be able to achieve throughout her apprenticeship programme. 

Jack, why did you decide to recruit an apprentice for your team?

Before joining Harris, I was working at a university, and at the time, degree apprenticeships in cyber were very new. So I signed up to do the course as a trial, I’ve done the programme that Noor’s doing and it was a huge benefit for my career. Cyber can be a tricky field to break into but this helped get my foot in the door and demonstrate my worth in the workplace. 

We only have limited funding, and that’s why most of primary and secondary education across the country don’t have dedicated cyber security teams. Schools are content rich in terms of having so much sensitive information, but often resource poor and that’s like a ticking time bomb; there’s a reason education is the most cyber attacked sector. By growing our own team and having a cohort of apprentices that are building the latest knowledge and skills, we want to set the scene in education, and promote why this is important with the economies of scale we have. 

 

And, what are you hoping to get from having an apprentice in the team?

As an organisation, we will see the benefits almost immediately. Having fresh people learning brand-new stuff, and who will be able to challenge our current processes and how we do things. In cyber, we have to keep moving and having new people who can challenge the norm will prevent us from stagnating. 

And we need people who will challenge, not just from a technical point of view but who remind us of who we’re here to serve which is the students at the end of the day. If we do bad security, and our security is too disruptive because we’ve got controls that are too invasive and too cumbersome, then in effect we would be causing the same problems as if we were to have a breach. We need people to come in and remind us of what students need. 

 

We’ll be sharing regular updates throughout Noor’s apprenticeship journey to be a successful Cyber Security professional. Keep an eye out for future blog posts about her experience.