Cradle to Cyber

A Low Risk, Employer Aligned Route to Junior Cyber Talent

Reducing Risk. Building Capability. Creating Sustainable Cyber Careers

Cradle to Cyber is Cerco’s end-to-end talent development pipeline designed to give employers access to job-ready junior cyber professionals with proven capability, real world experience and recognised industry qualifications.

Built in partnership with the Cerco C2C Academy, employers, and aligned to Industry leading Skills Frameworks, Cradle to Cyber delivers a structured pathway that takes candidates from foundational IT skills to full junior practitioner level — with significantly reduced hiring and retention risk.

Why Cradle to Cyber Exists

Hiring junior cyber professionals is notoriously high risk.
Organisations commonly face:

Candidates with theory but no practical experience
Long onboarding periods before value is added
Certification-heavy CVs that don’t translate into operational capability
Early attrition and mismatched expectations

Cradle to Cyber removes this risk by developing talent within a controlled, structured environment before they join your cyber team.

A Fully Managed Three Phase Training and Experience Model

Phase 1: Cradle – IT Foundations

Every candidate begins with our training partner’s long-standing, hands-on Fasttrack course – a 5 day, in-person assessment covering:

  • Hardware troubleshooting
  • Start up and BIOS management
  • Windows management
  • Printer setup
  • Networking fundamentals
  • Sharing, permissions, workgroups and domains
  • Wireless networking
  • Troubleshooting and break fix


Phase 2: Industry Experience

Following training, candidates work for 6–12 months as IT Service Engineers, gaining paid industry experience, customer exposure and baseline technical maturity before moving into cyber training. Whilst in the field, engineers will also undergo SC clearance to enable them to access a wider range of client sites, making them our most versatile engineering offering.

Phase 3: Role Aligned Cyber Security Training

A 60h our, practical cyber programme delivered by
experienced practitioners, mapped directly to
defined frameworks. Training covers:

  • Microsoft 365 & Azure fundamentals
  • Network security, routing, firewalls
  • Vulnerability management
  • OWASP Top 10
  • Penetration testing
  • SIEM
  • SOAR
  • Threat hunting, EDR & log analysis
  • Incident response forensics, malware & phishing analysis
  • Governance, risk & compliance (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS)


Typical specialties catered for include:

Tier 1 SOC Analyst

Security Administrator

Cyber Operations Support

GRC & Audit Support

What Employers get

By the end of the pathway, employers receive candidates who bring:

6–12 months of verified industry experience

Faster integration into cyber and security teams

Improved retention through proven readiness

Demonstrated, practical capability, not just theory

Reduced hiring, onboarding and retention risk

Flexible engagement models before committing to permanent hires

Partnerships

Veteran-Focused Talent Pipeline (Armed Forces Pathway)

Cradle to Cyber includes a specialist Armed Forces only delivery model, developed with Walking With The Wounded. Veterans receive structured pretraining support, tailored guidance, and managed deployment — without lowering technical standards.

Employers benefit from candidates with discipline, resilience and situational awareness. Strong security mindset. Embedded professionalism and team ethic
The result: a highly motivated, job ready cyber talent pool with proven real world grounding.

Why Employers Partner with Cerco

Cerco has sourced, trained, and deployed IT and security talent since 1989. Through our academy and social value programmes, we provide a scalable, nationwide pipeline of candidates committed to long‑term cyber careers. We work directly with employers to shape talent development around real operational needs.

Partner with Us

Cradle to Cyber gives organisations a sustainable, lowrisk way to grow junior cyber capability without the traditional hiring challenges. Partner with us to:

  • Access vetted, experience-ready candidates
  • Shape training to your environment and tools
  • Strengthen your social value and ESG impact
  • Participate in regional or veteran-focused cohorts

Ready to discuss your requirements?

Our team can support your project, deployment, or resourcing needs.