Newsletter 18.12.2017: learning materials and curriculum

Project Overview

The project has now reached its most active phase as the basic curriculum has been planned and now the learning materials are in the planning process. Starting from November 2017 we develop piloting guidelines and the pilots should be implemented in March-June 2018. After that pilot will be evaluated and modifications made accordingly. Also we have started to develop teacher training syllabus and the training is about to launch at the earliest on February 2018 continuing to the autumn 2018.


Some team work outcomes.

Creating learning resources

In the beginning of current year we started the process of creating new learning materials for curricula which has been worked out during ITSVET-project. The teaching method will be SCRUM methodology. This innovative teaching method have been actively used in Helsinki Business College. Main idea is to give students more opportunity to learn by doing and to test their skills and knowledge throughout the learning process. Therefore 30lab guidelines is prepared by team which consist of 10 people, mostly teachers, ICT professionals and experts. We  have been actively discussing which is best for students and teachers. And 10 people have been written and reviewing lab guidelines on the topics brought out in Curricula. During 2018 written lab guidelines will be tested by teachers and students to get feedback about them. We hope and wish that more students and teachers will get opportunity to teach and learn with the support of lab guidelines created through this project.

It is time to start planning for ITSVET Teacher Training

VET teachers from all VET schools but particularly from Finland, Latvia and Estonia are welcome to participate. Especially those who plan to launch a IT Security curriculum in their school or just interested to broaden their IT curricula or teaching methodology.
Trainings are planned to start in June 2018 and continue till the end of the year.
In June one joint international training in Tallinn is planned. After that the trainings will be held in all three countries locally.

  • SCRUM in Education – agile development methodology applied in learning. SCRUM as the foundation of ITSVET Curriculum. SCRUM in education in Helsinki Business College
  • ITSVET Curriculum – what is the ITSVET Curriculum?
  • Practical Guidelines for implementation – How to implement it? First-hand results from pilots in Helsinki Business College, Riga Technical College and Tallinn Polytechnic;
  • Hotest Topics in IT Security – going in depth of IT security.
Trainings will also include a practical apprenticeship component, that is planned to include:
  • longer placements at companies with deeper knowledge and activities in IT security field;
  • installing and jointly working in demo environment for testing, simulation and modelling of security incidents. The environments planned to use would be:
    • Cypher Path
    • F-Secure Radar –  a vulnerability scanning and management solution that consists of three scanning engines: Port, Platform, and a Web application scanners. Radar allows easily control and manage IT security risks. It is a sophisticated vulnerability scanning and management service that will to identify and remediate known vulnerabilities in any platform or web application.
      Video: https://youtu.be/UQNtyIutIZM
  • Company visits: In cooperation with F-Secure Corporation (Finland) we wish to provide the teachers a visit to F-Secure Corporation HQ in Helsinki. During the visit to the F-Secure lab, there’ll be presentations regarding the latest cyber threats and the methods how to protect against them. Teachers will get the latest overview about threat vectors and real-time cyber situation awareness situation.
VET teachers teaching and working in the area of IT Security are welcome to participate in ITSVET dissemination event and teacher training, planned to take place in conjunction with International Conference „INDUSTRY 4.0 IN PRACTICE“ in Tallinn in June 2018.

Welcome to ITSVET International Dissemination Event and first Teacher Training Tallinn, June 7.-8. 2018

VET teachers teaching and working in the area of IT Security are welcome to participate in ITSVET dissemination event and teacher training, planned to take place in conjunction with International Conference „INDUSTRY 4.0 IN PRACTICE“ in Tallinn in June 2018 

Venue: Spacex Activity Center at Ülemiste City, Tallinn (next to TLL Airport)
Time: 07.-08. juuni 2018

First day: conference in English. One main stream + partner area (including ITSVET Project)
Second day:     – ITSVET curriculum implementation training for VET teachers,
– Hackaton by EAS, Company visits

Main topics: Challenges changing  your  business model; Future workforce, IT Security
Participants: 350+ internationally.
ITSVET Teacher Training will include:
  • SCRUM in Education – agile development methodology applied in learning. SCRUM as the foundation of ITSVET Curriculum. SCRUM in education in Helsinki Business College
  • ITSVET Curriculum – what is the ITSVET Curriculum? How to implement it?
  • Results from Pilot – first-hand results of pilots in Helsinki Business College, Riga Technical College and Tallinn Polytechnic;
  • Hotest Topics in IT Security – going in depth of IT security.

Who should attend: VET teachers from all VET schools but particularly from Finland, Latvia and Estonia are welcome to participate. Especially those who plan to launch a IT Security curriculum in their school or just interested to broaden their IT curricula or teaching methodology.

For more information please contact:
BCS Koolitus: Merje Vaide, merje.vaide@bcs.ee
Helsinki Business College: Jouni Hytönen: jouni.hytonen@businesscollege.fi

Summary: After the curriculum development and the new new learning materials phase there will be implemented pilots by each educational partner.  Also teachers training program will be planned and implemented. Finally educational actors will include the outcomes to their normal activities.

ITSVET Newsletter 15.2.2017

Project Overview

ITSVET Project has proceeded so far as planned. During the second period the main duty has been planning the curriculum for the program based on the research done during previous period.
There has been one project group meeting in Tallinn where the project plan was gone through and checked that every partner commit to their responsibilities. Also one of the streering group meeting has been held.
There utilisation of the research has continued by all partners and the need of working life has been transferred to the curriculum planning. Curriculum framework for ICT security experts has been planned and the detailed discussion about the content was carried out in the project meeting in December. During this spring the curriculum structure and the content will be developed further and finally localised by project partners. As the next stage the mapping of study material for the program will start and after that missing parts will be developed.
As a project we also faced an interesting ICT security case while our DSS system was attacked and encrypted by a cryptovirus which got in using a false e-mail address and was opened by a partner. All files were recovered by the Dropbox support system. It took 5 days and the project communication via DSS and uploading working documents was delayed.

Third Partner Meeting in Tallinn
– Developing the Curriculum

The host of the third meeting, Ants Sild, welcomed all the partners and offered excellent facilities for the meeting.
The ICT security case the project itself faced and how to prevent our processes later on was discussed during the dinner
Ants Sild, CEO of BCS Koolitus, coordinated the project timeplan.

ICT Security Specialist

Modules of the curriculum:

  1. Information Security Management  5 ECTS
  2. Business Continuity Management – 5ECTS
  3. Customer Service / Service Delivery – 5ECTS
  4. Securing IT Solutions – 15ECTS
Summary: After research phase the new ICT Security Curriculum will be planned, learning materials created, teachers coached and pilot tested. Finally educational actors will include the outcomes to their normal activities.

Moving forward

Scrum -pedagogy is planned to be utilised in the planned program. The first SCRUM-training has taken place in Kehtna, Estonia by BCS Koolitus AS on 9.-10-2.2017. All in all 25 ICT-teachers were coached.

During period three the Curriculum and it’s localisation prosess will be finalised. The mapping of learning resources will be carried out by all the partners.

ITSVET project web pages are live now!

Demand for ICT security experts is outstripping the available supply by a widening margin. Recently released reports show that demand for ICT security professionals over the past five years grew 3.5 times faster than demand for other ICT jobs and about 12 times faster than for all other jobs. ICT security is a very relevant issue in a range of industries, including defence, financial services, retail, healthcare and professional services

The overall objective of the project is to develop a model for providing ICT Security skills on the Vocational Education level with needed support systems in order to better meet the needs of the employers and to reduce the skill gap on the labour market of the CBR.

Current project combines all important roleplayers that are needed to address the challenge:

  • ICT employers from the region to identify the needed skills of ICT Security specialists;
  • VET regulatory bodies who are authorized to guide the field`s education standards and focus and who know in depth the process of developing a curricula;
  • VET schools will play the main role in delivering the labour market needs to students (future employees).