I found this master’s and applied the same day

Valentine Chepchirchir is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and has been working in the cyber security assurance field for just short of a decade. She now works at Airtel Africa within Technology Assurance.

“Within Airtel, I’m responsible for ensuring that we have a proper plan for the technology audits, that we execute these audits and that we understand the regulations around cyber security.”

After getting her bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications and Information Engineering, she joined KPMG East Africa as an IT consultant in Risk Advisory.

“When I was doing my undergraduate [degree], someone who was a certified ethical hacker gave us a lecture about his work in cyber security. It made me want to go in that direction.”

Valentine is a certified ethical hacker herself, and working for KPMG gave her experience working in the cyber security assurance field. That’s when she first considered getting further certification to supplement her practical knowledge.

“The technical skills are very important, but in addition you need to have the general skills. An MSc offers you the general knowledge that one needs to be a decision maker.”

The ambition to have deep knowledge in cyber security which would then positively impact her work pushed Valentine to pursue a master’s. She'd wanted to do it for a long time, but she didn’t know what online degrees were available.

“I wanted to study in the UK, but my work and family are here. I’d have to figure out a way for them to move with me if I went to study abroad.”

Valentine explained that she browsed for online courses, and the University of London programme popped up. She checked the website to make sure the course and institution were legitimate, as her main concern was that not all online education advertisements were trustworthy.

“I went on the University of London website and applied for the MSc on the same day.”

Valentine knew that the University had been around for a while, and she found the course that she wanted to apply for. According to her, there was no need to check any other institutions or learning platforms.

It's fully remote and exactly what I was looking for.

The MSc Cyber Security programme is delivered via Coursera, and Valentine liked how the platform allowed her to track her progress and see how many weeks she had left to go through the content. She didn’t expect the amount of reading she had to do to successfully complete the course.

“[The degree] refreshed my knowledge and opened my eyes a bit more when it comes to the things that I do every day at work. I'm going to apply this [new knowledge] in my auditing work; I have a deeper understanding of the things that I've actually been taught by the course.”

Valentine also shared her personal tip for successful study. She takes handwritten notes while going through lectures, as it allows her to better understand what is being taught and explain it in her own words. It helps later on because, as she points out, the exams aren’t as straightforward as just finding an answer in the notes or lecture slides.

The exams contain thought-provoking questions. It’s not like you can go back to your notes and find an answer there. You have to understand the whole module to be able to answer the questions.

Valentine points out that your answer will never be the same as someone else’s, although she does enjoy the opportunity to read people’s opinions and thoughts on Coursera. She advises anyone who decides to pursue this course to try and be consistent with their reading and set aside some time for reading every day.

Find out more about the University of London’s MSc in Cyber Security.