The Defence College for Military Capability Integration (DCMCI)’s Defence Cyber Academy (DCA) recently shared expertise at Europe’s largest defence training event.
The International Training Technology Exhibition and Conference (IT2EC) was held at the London ExCeL from the 9 to 11 April, with delegations from around the world attending.
Highlighting innovative research and development (R&D) in the fields of military simulation and training technology, the event also show-cased less traditional examples from the worlds of gaming and first responder industries.
In addressing one of this year’s key focus areas, ‘Emerging Solutions,’ Wing Commander Paul Withers, Officer Commanding Delivery, DCA, shared insight into the current activities contributing to the development of defence’s skilled cyber operators and analysts for front-line roles.
In a 30-minute presentation entitled ‘The Defence Cyber Academy: A new era of how we train, educate and re-skill cyber specialists’, Wing Commander Withers addressed themes that included:
- talent identification
- foundational skills
- role-specific skills
- (vendor) tool-specific skills
- small team training
- collective training
Wing Commander Withers also shared the Academy’s aims to offer different means and methods of delivery to suit individual learning styles, thus providing solutions to support accessibility and neuro differences.
An example of this was the use of gamification in training, which requires the integration of technologies that support both classroom based and online training.
Wing Commander Withers said:
“It was a privilege to present at this year’s IT2EC. The conference was a fantastic opportunity to see some cutting-edge training technology solutions and to engage with industry partners. I particularly enjoyed the Q&A session where we were able to exchange ideas on the shared challenges of cyber training”.
The Defence Cyber Academy is a centre of excellence for cyber learning, development and outreach for UK defence and government, providing technical skills and specialist education.
Based within DCMCI at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, it is responsible for training defence’s cyber specialists, as well as playing a vital role in educating non-technical leaders on the importance of cyberspace and cyber risk.