Singapore training academy taps Israeli expertise to launch tech education practice

• The Boston Business School offers cybersecurity & product management skills 
• Wawiwa uses methodologies from Israeli army to train soldiers in tech skills

BBS, otherwise known as the Boston Business School, a training academy of long-standing in Singapore, is launching programmes to train, upskill, and reskill people to work in highly sought after technology roles.

The first new programmes to be taught will enable people to take on roles as cybersecurity analysts or investigators, or to work in incident response teams, due to the fast growing demand for these roles. Another programme will equip people with digital analytical skills to become effective product managers.

Within the technology and data sectors there is high demand for product managers who can discover and develop new revenue opportunities, so the job skill requirements are heavily digitally focused.

“There’s a huge gap of unfilled technology jobs across our region, which we know is due to a mismatch between available talent and requisite tech skills,” said Lee Kian Chong (pic), Director, BBS. “To bridge that gap, together with industry partners and Israeli knowhow, BBS has developed tech programmes aimed at building a pool of talent with the digital skills necessary to effectively perform in these available jobs, and prepare students in alignment with industry certifications.”

To launch the curricula for the tech education practice, BBS partnered with Wawiwa, experts in tech training. Wawiwa Tech Training has establish similar academies across the world, drawing from their experience working with tech companies in Israel, a place globally renowned for its research and development, cybersecurity, and technology companies.

Eran Lasser, Wawiwa’s founder and chief executive officer, says: “We were delighted to partner with BBS, who are now benefiting from our years of experience in establishing tech training academies. Ultimately their programmes will help better protect Singaporean businesses and organisations.”

Wawiwa perfected methodologies used in the Israeli army to train new soldiers with no technological experience to become savvy professionals who work in programming, data science, and cybersecurity within a few months. Their proprietary Job-Effective Training (JET) design training methodology makes sure that the training experience feels a lot like everyday work at the future job role. Over 70% of graduates from Wawiwa’s cybersecurity programmes have found relevant employment in the private and public sectors.  

To ensure Singapore industry relevance to the programmes, BBS engaged industry partners, such as Qavar and Choco Up. Industry partners help advise on the programme content which prepares graduates to work in local industry. BBS also set up an advisory board of experts in the cybersecurity field, notably Eugene Ching, MD of Qavar Security, along with Efrat Rahat, an expert in tech human resources (tech HR), to offer insights when developing the tech curricula.

Cybersecurity Education

Organizations today are involved in unprecedented digitalisation, which has meant that the role of cybersecurity has now reached the board’s agenda and is a top priority. Demand to fill cybersecurity jobs is highest in Singapore, and an average salary tops US$73,500 (S$100,000) per annum, according to recent research by Techshielder.

BBS will teach programmes that upskill people to become a Cyber Advance Malware Analyst Investigator, work in Cyber Security and Incident Response, and Practical Cyber Forensics Investigation. Another programme will upskill or reskill employees in as little as six months to work as Cybersecurity Analysts. BBS also plans to introduce programmes that teach skills to work in OT security, threat hunting, and threat intelligence.

 The programmes are aligned with industry-recognized certification from organisations such as Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC), and the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

The programmes, offered part-time and full-time will be taught in purpose built classrooms, and in a hybrid format, online.