Challenges

• Graduates have technical and soft skills gaps
• Continuously offering premium cybersecurity services
• Supporting consultants during the transition to different roles
• Tracking cybersecurity training progress

Solutions

• Leverage OffSec's hands-on courses to gain confidence in consultants' technical proficiency
• Benchmark and support graduates in their chosen career path with Penetration Testing with Kali Linux (PEN-200) course
• Upskill and reskill senior consultants with Advanced Evasion Techniques and Breaching Defenses (PEN-300) course
• Use OffSec certs as a stamp of approval for the success of their cybersecurity training program

Results

• Rigorous courses, certs, and labs prepared Nettitude's team to protect clients against cyberattacks
• Graduates who choose pentesting as a career path have access to leading training
• Practical training boosted engagement and confidence across the team
• Advanced training helped develop and promote talent from within via upskilling and reskilling
• Trusted certification allowed Nettitude to track the success of the training program

About Nettitude

Nettitude Group is a UK award-winning provider of cybersecurity services founded in 2003 that offers technical assurance, offensive security, incident response, consulting services, and managed security services.

Operating globally, their expert team of security consultants provides pragmatic cybersecurity services for various industries. These include Finance and Banking, Technology and Engineering, Maritime, Retail, Healthcare, and Critical Nation Infrastructure.

Upskilling & continuously invest in cybersecurity talent

Nettitude needed to find a way to continuously invest in and upskill talented people to deliver industry-leading client services. Adam Jeffreys joined Nettitude as a Principal Manager for Penetration Testers, managing cybersecurity training for Juniors through their Accelerator Program. This program provides all the initial skills required for new penetration testers to commence real-world work.

While the Accelerator course was extensive and prepared graduates for the Nettitude methodology and process, Adam and his team wanted to ensure all skill gaps were closed.

“In recent years, people have come out from University with far greater skills and expertise in cybersecurity than before, but they lack some real-world skills that they will need on the job.” -Adam Jeffreys

Many new graduates don’t come from University with hands-on experience with the latest technologies, or the right mindset needed to protect and secure businesses.

To solve this skills gap, after the internal course, new members could choose external training and certification in a cybersecurity domain they want to specialize in. Nettitude needed to offer training that would make newcomers technically proficient in their specialization and teach them the soft skills required to advance in their careers.

When choosing a cybersecurity training provider for penetration testing, for Adam and his Nettitude team, it was essential to have a course and certification that is trusted and industry-recognized.

“In the end, we want to provide a certification that we can trust and that the industry respects – that is an important benchmark for us.”

Nettitude’s clients are also keen to verify a consultant’s certification portfolio, so it is imperative that the training comes from a trusted provider.

Furthermore, the Nettitude team wasn’t just looking for cybersecurity training for their new team members and fresh graduates.

To stay abreast with the security services they offer clients, Nettitude needed a continuous professional development plan for all their security consultants.

Assessing, upskilling, and reskilling their team was crucial to supporting their consultants in the career progression path they chose.

For this, Nettitude chose OffSec as their cybersecurity training provider.

Why OffSec?

As a pen tester who earned an OSCP during his career, it was clear to Adam and Nettitude that OffSec would be their chosen provider. With a time-tested approach and industry recognition for the quality of training that spans more than a decade, OffSec became an indispensable part of Nettitude’s professional development program and the Accelerator Program.

Nettitude has provided their graduates and consultants interested in red teaming and penetration testing an opportunity to enroll in the following OffSec courses:

• PEN-200 course and OSCP certification - The coveted hands-on, self- study, learn-by-doing foundational course for penetration testing that aims to teach the mindset, skills, and tools needed for a successful offensive security career.
• PEN-300 course and OSEP certification - An Advanced Evasion Techniques and Breaching Defenses course that teaches students to perform advanced penetration tests against mature organizations and acts as the next step in a pen tester’s career after obtaining the OSCP.

Some of the key factors that set OffSec above other cybersecurity training companies are:

• OffSec’s pentesting courses are renowned for their practicality and for showing real-world scenarios you would encounter in an engagement. This provided assurance of Nettitude's consultants’ job-ready skills and competency level.
• OffSec provides highly realistic labs that emulate a corporate environment. Not only is the level of realism difficult to match but the training is crowned with a highly sought-after certification.
• OffSec certifications acted as the confirmation of Nettitude’s cybersecurity training program's success. The highly-regarded certs allowed them to build greater trust with their clients.
• As cybersecurity is an ever-evolving field, OffSec courses are designed for different skill levels and are continuously updated with new content. This allowed Nettitude’s team to sharpen their skills and stay up-to-date with industry developments.

The PEN-200 course, a foundational pentesting course, was chosen to benchmark new graduates and support them after completing the Accelerator Program.

In addition to PEN-200, Nettitude leveraged the PEN-300 course to upskill and reskill their long-term consultants and support them when transition to an offensive security role.

Prepared for the changing threat landscape

OffSec’s rigorous and real-world training prepared the Nettitude team to protect their clients in the changing threat landscape. The practicality of the courses was distinctively important to Adam and Nettitude as it allowed them to fill any skills gaps that the graduates had after completing University.

Through OffSec courses, we were able to ensure people are ready for the challenge and that we are confident in their abilities to help our clients defend against attackers.

Graduates that went through their Accelerated Program could now choose penetration testing as their career path and have continuous skill development with OffSec’s courses. Hands-on labs and exams allowed them to be involved in their progress and professional development.

By implementing OffSec training throughout their company and allowing consultants of all experience levels to enroll, Nettitude could promote more talent from within via upskilling and reskilling with more advanced training.

Ultimately, a trusted training and certification provider such as OffSec allowed Nettitude’s team to be more confident in their skills and provided Adam with an ability to present management with benchmarked results of the success of their cybersecurity training program.

“It has been a pleasure working with Offsec, the Offsec courses and certifications have provided a huge benefit to our consultants, their career development and the industry as whole.”