Orange Cyberdefense and Mido Academy Partner to Equip Local Youth With In-Demand Cybersecurity Skills

The initiative helps prepare learners for work in cyber — offering opportunities and careers whilst building a path to lasting change, says the duo.

"As an organisation that prides itself on being able to offer its clients expert cybersecurity skills, it only makes sense that we are involved with cultivating the next generation of skills within our community," says Dillon Bensusan, Marketing Manager at Orange Cyberdefense.

The programme is in its third cohort with 21 learners and is currently immersed in an intensive curriculum that develops their technical and professional capabilities, adds the duo.

"Often, a big challenge for people in the early stages of their careers is that they need work experience in order to get hired but how do they get that work experience without being given an opportunity?" asks Bensusan.

Orange Cyberdefense is addressing this by introducing a comprehensive and practival work experience project into the MiDO curriculum aimed at giving students work experience, adds the duo.

"We often hear about the cyber skills shortage but there seems to be a shortage of investment in the people who are expected to fill this gap," comments Zade Bonface, Senior Incident Response Analyst at Orange Cyberdefense, and a monthly Guest Speaker at the MiDO Academy.

The initiative has been trialled with five students in the last cohort and will now be rolled out to the entire 2025 cohort for four months, starting Friday, 1 August, and is led by Wicus Ross, Senior Security Researcher at Orange Cyberdefense. The project will see learners being exposed to practical cyber assignments — from threat hunting and vulnerability testing to collaborative research on live cases under expert guidance, says the duo.

"Our observations from the 2023 cohorts who took part in the Work Experience Program indicated that students with structured project exposure were integrated into the workforce more quickly than their peers," adds Ross. "These students were able to draw on concrete elements of their project experience during interviews and assessments. Their ability to reference real contributions to a published industry report — the Security Navigator — gave them a significant advantage."

"Seeing these young professionals in action, applying theoretical knowledge to real environments, is immensely rewarding," says Ross. "This project fast-tracks their growth and readiness for employment in cyber."

Personal Mentorship Bridging Theory and Practice

Through this structured work experience programme, Boniface is taking a deeply personal approach to supporting the MiDO learners. He dedicates one day each month to visit the MiDO classroom and makes himself available as a soundboard for any queries or questions the students may have — about anything technical or professional, says the duo.

"My core motivation is to give young people the support and guidance I would have liked to have had when I was starting out," says Boniface. "There are many people who helped me along the way and this is my way of paying it forward."

With a similar intention to the Work Experience Project, Boniface aims to guide the students into a productive mindset and to bridge the gap between their theory studies of CompTIA A+, N+, S+ and how this applies to the real world. He assigns research projects that challenge learners to think critically and has the students present their findings either in writing or by presenting to the class, says the duo.

According to Orange Cyberdefense, some of the practical projects Boniface has assigned include:

• group work presentations on Edward Snowden, The Shadow Brokers, Eternal Blue and the WannaCry Ransomware attacks
• OSINT reporting, where students were tasked woth compiling a report of all publicly available information they could find on Boniface, and
• most recently, the students completed a Network As-built documentation project based on their home networks.

Recent Accreditation Milestone

The MiDO Academy has recently achieved official accreditation as a Skills Development Provider for the Occupational Certificate: Cybersecurity Analyst (NQF Level 5). This milestone displays MiDO's commitment to rigorous, nationally recognised training that prepares learners for practical roles in the workplace, says the duo. 

"By immersing learners in workplace projects with support from industry, we're not just teaching skills or ticking a compliance tickbox for skills development, we're unlocking pathways out of poverty and into meaningful digital careers," says Dale Simons, Director of the MiDO Academy.

"For Orange Cyberdefense, this partnership reflects our mission to build a safer digital society — one that is inclusive, empowering, sustainable and safe. It's as much about youth development as it is about providing South African businesses the skills they need to fight cybercrime," adds Bensusan.

Together with the MiDO Academy, it aims to help nurture the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by equipping them with technical knowledge and believing in their potential to change the world, says the duo.

"Without partners like Orange Cyberdefense who are genuinely invested in supporting our efforts to build inclusive talent pipelines we wouldn't be able to do what we do. It's only through partnerships like this that we're truly able to make an impact and we really appreciate the support," concludes Anna Collard, Co-Founder and Advisory Board Member of the MiDO Academy.

For more information, visit www.orangecyberdefense.com You can also follow Orange Cyberdefense on LinkedIn, or on X.

*Image courtesy of contributor