Five Gib teams compete in CyberCenturion X

Five local teams from Bayside School, Westside School and Prior Park School are competing in this year’s CyberCenturion X competition.

The 16 pupils involved, most of whom are girls, have been attending weekly training sessions which have been delivered by industry professionals.

Last week Minister for Digital Services, Nigel Feetham, visited the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy where pupils were competing in the first round of the competition.

CyberCenturion is a national cyber education initiative for 12-18 year-olds in the UK and UK overseas territories.

The program is designed to excite, educate and motivate students to pursue further education and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and cybersecurity, which helps to build a diverse talent pool to supply the UK’s workforce needs.

Its objective is to deliver an inspirational competitive education experience, which provides practical learning about cyber in the real world; development of technical and employability skills that are useful in any industry; and motivation to pursue Cyber/STEM subjects and careers.

The competition consists of students having to configure and secure two Linux based operating systems.

Linux administrators are a well-sought skill set within the technology sector and such competitions help to expose and upskill students, a spokesman for the Digital Skills Academy said.