Cradle to Cyber®

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, realworld 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 Two Phase Training and Experience Model

Phase 1: The Cradle — IT Foundations + Field Experience

Every candidate begins with Cerco’s long-standing,
hands-on Fasttrack course -
a 5 day, in-person, failable assessment covering:

• Hardware troubleshooting and system startup
• Windows management, disk configuration, user & group administration
• Printer setup and networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DHCP, APIPA)
• Sharing, permissions, workgroups and domains

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 2: 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)

This ensures every candidate develops practical skills aligned to the real requirements of junior cyber roles.

What employers get

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

• ✔ 6–12 months of documented industry experience
• ✔ Faster integration into cyber teams
• ✔ Real, demonstrated capability—not just certificates
• ✔ Reduced hiring, onboarding and retention risk
• ✔ Flexible engagement models before committing to permanent hires

Typical specialties catered for include:

• Tier 1 SOC Analyst
• Security Administrator
• Cyber Operations Support
• GRC & Audit Support