The Munster Technological University Faculty of Engineering & Science Awards recognise and celebrate students who have shown academic excellence throughout the year. For the first time this year, Cyber Skills had a category, honouring three students who excelled in their chosen pathway.

David shares his experience of studying Secure Systems Architecture with Cyber Skills and the value the pathway has provided him.

“I started off my career in an operational support role ensuring applications remained accessible and highly available. On commencement of the Cyber Skills pathway, I was working in an Infrastructure/Solution Architect role where I worked designing infrastructure/middleware solutions for many of Shared & Harness components at Mastercard.

Recently I have moved into a new role, Manager of System Platform Architecture at Mastercard, managing a global team of 10 Infrastructure Design Architects, while remaining a technical manager.

I heard about Cyber Skills through an initiative at work. After reading through the prospectus, I really liked the sound of the modules and material covered in the different pathways as they would be very relevant to my role. The structure of the pathways and the online nature of the Cyber Skills courses also appealed to me, this would allow for a more flexible education experience.

The Secure System Architecture pathway provides in-depth training and knowledge on how to ensure solutions are designed / architected with security fundamentals at the core. As a professional working in an Infrastructure architecture role this pathway caught my eye, as it would provide me knowledge and experience that I could use in my everyday role.

The knowledge and experience I gained while completing the Cyber Skills pathway will provide a positive impact on my career. It has provided me with the core fundamentals of Secure System Architecture and given me an understanding of how to ensure that security is at the core of any solutions I am involved in designing. It has also enabled me to assist team members ensuring their designs adhere to industry security standards”.