Government-led Cyber Discovery programme gets 20,000 student sign ups in just six weeks

Youth-focused cyber security programme part of the CyberFirst initiative launched by Theresa May last year

More than 20,000 students have signed up to, and taken part in, the initial assessment stage of the government-led Cyber Discovery programme, in the six weeks since launch.

The programme forms part of the government's CyberFirst initiative, which was launched by Prime Minister Theresa May in November 2017. It is a part of the UK government's £1.9bn National Cyber Security Strategy.

It is being delivered by a consortium consisting of BT, Cyber Security Challenge UK, SANS Institute and FutureLearn, and it aims to interest and inspire more young people - aged 14-18 - in cyber security.

The project looks to inspire more women to take part in the cyber security industry as one way of filling that gap, and more than a quarter of the initial sign-ups have been from female students, according to SANS Institute.

Those that have completed the series of challenges and online scenarios in the assessment stage and shown that they have the necessary talent to move onto more difficult challenges will be invited to the next stage of Cyber Discovery, called CyberStart Game. This will provide hundreds of hours of further challenges and teaching.

If they pass this stage they will progress to CyberStart Essentials, and finally they'll go on to the CyberStart Elite phase of the programme.

The first pilot year of the programme has been launched in England, with the aim of rolling it out to other parts of the UK.

More than 2,000 students from London have registered or are taking part in the assessment stage, with the capital boasting the largest proportion of applicants. There have also been 600 student sign-ups in Birmingham, more than 500 in Manchester and more than 300 in Nottingham.

Matt Hancock, the government's digital minister said he was delighted to see so many young people interested in cyber security.

"Cyber security offers fascinating and varied career opportunities, and I encourage inquisitive students across the country to challenge themselves to see if they've got what it takes before the deadline closes," he said.

The deadline for applications closes on 21 January.