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Bletchley Park will host the fist cyber security college in the UK.
If you enjoy programming and was fascinated with Alan Turing, even if it was only due to the 2014 movie The Imitation Game, then you should be excited to learn that the famous codebreaking center from which Turing and his team operated during World War II will become a college for cyber security.
The action of the movies, as well as the real-life efforts of the United Kingdom to decrypt Nazi communications, was concentrated at Bletchley Park. If this does not bear enough historical importance to garner your interest, then you should know that this also the location where the world’s first electronic computer known as Colossus was created.
Unfortunately, after the war came to end, the site fell into disrepair, but parts of the buildings were restored in order to house the United Kingdom’s National Museum of Computing. Regarding the other buildings, many remain vacant still. As such, Qufaro, a recently founded company, has decided to start a cyber security college.
Among the company’s leadership there Margaret Sale, the widow of one the museum’s founders as well as Alastair MacWillson, a consultant in IT security issues. As such, they thought it was only fitting that the historical Bletchley Park would host a college that will produce a new generation of cyber security experts.
Among the company’s various ambitions is the plan to offer a number of virtual courses on cyber security as well as forming a specialist school which can help young people get on the path to become professionals in this field. Potential students will be selected based on their merits and potential.
The National College of Cybersecurity would be free for all of the selected students, which reportedly won’t have to meet any conventional academic criteria. Instead, they will have to pass certain aptitude tests or possess extraordinary technology skills such as learning to code by themselves.
Qufaro hopes to obtain a combination of government funding as well as a corporate sponsorship for its upcoming school. Additional funds would be raised by holding conferences at the historical site during the various school holidays. The cyber security college is off to a good start as the company’s project has managed to get the support of Bletchley Park Science and Innovation Center. The Center has leased a number of buildings from the owner BT.
Image source: Wikimedia
