A NETWORK security specialist has high praise for the college which put him on the right path to a successful career.
Chris Brown secured a Level 3 Extended Diploma in IT before moving on to an apprenticeship at Darlington College.
He now works for Fortune 500-listed Arrow ECS, a network security company in Newmarket, which has clients globally.
“I hope that I will progress within the organisation by working through more industry certifications and training,” said Chris, whose apprenticeship was served at Bishop Barrington School, Bishop Auckland.
“I enjoyed being able to use what was being taught in a real world environment, including the CCNA 1 Networking and Architecture, Mobile Device Management, Cloud and Business processes. This allowed me to then take Microsoft certifications to validate my knowledge and gain a distinction while collecting industry certification and badges for the Cisco CCNA (Routing and Switching) and Microsoft Technical Associate certifications.
“Also, during my apprenticeship I was given the opportunity to undertake many other complementary to IT support courses, certificates and badges, such Linux, Security Fundamentals, and also gain experience with server management and configuration, as well as various cloud computing. I wasn't just sitting reading about IT, I was actually doing it.”
As a networks security engineer and analyst, Chris hopes to complete more certifications, such as PaloAlto, NetApp, Checkpoint and Cisco, and use the experience to progress in the industry, eventually working as a penetration tester.
“The apprenticeship was great teaching me all about networking and different areas of computing, as well as giving me lots of practical experience working with common technologies that are used in the real world,” he said.
“It gave me a more practical approach to learning. I was able to use equipment, build networks and work hands-on with all the commonly-used hardware and software, routers and switches.”
For more information on opportunities at Darlington College visit www.darlington.ac.uk.