11 Plus Exams Forum

CyberFirst courses are designed to introduce young people to the world of cyber security. If you're plugged into social media, smashing gaming records or just get tech, chances are you're a cyberist in the making. You're the future of cyber security.

CyberFirst is all about practical, hands-on learning and applied teamwork - with a promise to cut through jargon. All of the courses are designed to bring out every student's potential.

The courses are free; they are a mix of residential and non -residential and based at selected UK Universities and colleges.

Two courses that still have places are shown below.

CyberFirst Futures
Warwick 30th July to 3rd August

This course introduces the more advanced practical features of cyber security and deals with the cyber security concerns of businesses and large networks.

(Students must be 15 or 16 years old (born between 1 September 2001 and 31 August 2002) on the first day of this course.)

This is a Girls only course.

CyberFirst Futures
Newent 20th August to 24th August
This course introduces the more advanced practical features of cyber security and deals with the cyber security concerns of businesses and large networks.

(Students must be 15 or 16 years old (born between 1 September 2001 and 31 August 2002) on the first day of this course.)

https://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/cour ... yberfirst/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Surprised it is legal to make a course like this girls only. I wonder why they mention it only at the very end of the blurb.

Amber wrote:Surprised it is legal to make a course like this girls only. I wonder why they mention it only at the very end of the blurb.

Small piece/Arkwright are trying very hard to break the gender barriers for all these types of industry. Having had a DD just go through the scholarship application process, I can vouch for the fact that although they make no secret that they are trying to promote it to females, it was still male dominated.

Amber wrote:Surprised it is legal to make a course like this girls only. I wonder why they mention it only at the very end of the blurb.

Given the events I see, if it’s open to all (especially computing type ones) they are practically all male.

It should be open to all then make sure all the girls get accepted and pick boys names from a hat. It's perfectly possible to do this and end up with a good gender balance.

What is the point of an artificial 'all female' course when students have to live in the real world?

These courses of course aren't really 'free' as there are transport costs as with the other similar posted. The middle class will dominate them.

I wonder if anyone is offering similar free courses to get boys into the humanities, or into primary teaching. Gender stereotyping cuts both ways and it seems the push to get everyone doing STEM has rather overtaken any other items on that particular agenda.

Guest55 wrote:It should be open to all then make sure all the girls get accepted and pick boys names from a hat. It's perfectly possible to do this and end up with a good gender balance.

What is the point of an artificial 'all female' course when students have to live in the real world?

These courses of course aren't really 'free' as there are transport costs as with the other similar posted. The middle class will dominate them.

Not for the first time we disagree.. if by being single gender it helps someone down a path they would otherwise not have taken them it is a good thing..

You don't need a single gender course to encourage girls into computing. I agree with Amber and have posted similar elsewhere. Where is the push to get men into Primary teaching or Humanities?

After a quick internet search for programmes to encourage men into primary schools I found there had been just such a push e.g. A report from the previous government

News story
Record numbers of men teaching in primary schools - but more still needed
Latest data from the Teaching Agency (TA) shows more men are becoming primary school teachers.

Published 16 July 2012
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reco ... ill-needed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perhaps the general crisis in education funding and teacher retention has undone any progress.

DH, whose field is cybersecurity, notes his profession is 83% male. The profession is crying out for more women (and men too) with the skills needed. Cyber security is not the same as computing and requires more than an enthusiasm for hacking which is the main draw for a significant number of those entering the field.

Guest55 wrote:You don't need a single gender course to encourage girls into computing. I agree with Amber and have posted similar elsewhere. Where is the push to get men into Primary teaching or Humanities?

Just because one thing isn't there, why should the other suffer? That's like saying you can have salt on something but only if it's accompanied by pepper..