Transforming self-doubt into excellence

When Nuraini Bte Ismail was enrolled in the Nitec in Infocomm Technology at ITE, she had doubts if she would be able to cope with the rigour of the course - but a pep talk with her lecturer convinced her to give it another try. Gradually, she began to gain interest in what she was studying, and did so well that she could skip a year when pursuing her Higher Nitec in Cyber & Network Security.

"I didn’t expect to be one of the top students in my cohort. No matter how much I revised, I had doubts if I could make it. But I was lucky to have a group of close friends who encouraged me."

After completing her Higher Nitec in 2018, Nuraini was keen to deepen her knowledge in cybersecurity and gain relevant work experience at the same time. When she heard about the Work-Study Diploma ↗ (opens in new tab) in Security Systems Engineering in the same year, she knew this was what she was looking for.

She liked the course structure which alternated between eight weeks of school and three to six months of hands-on training at a company. Nuraini was attached to NEC Asia Pacific, a global information and communications technology provider with its regional headquarters in Singapore. During her work attachment, she was part of a team that looked after the company’s IT system by providing solutions for issues within the process, user support, troubleshooting, and maintaining the existing system.

What she learnt in school was reinforced by her work experience, which gave her insights into how textbook concepts are applied in real-life situations. For instance, she was taught the fundamentals of setting up and testing a video surveillance system in class. At her workplace, she could connect what she had learnt to her company’s CCTVs set-up. She gained a better understanding of the blind spots and risk assessments that needed to be considered in setting up a video surveillance system.

Even though Nuraini enjoyed her work-study experience, it was not without its own set challenges, which she learnt to manage.

"Sometimes, my colleagues would contact me during my lectures to help resolve an urgent work matter. Thankfully, my lecturers were very understanding and would allow me to attend to my work."

Upon graduation, Nuraini was promoted from an Assistant Systems Engineer to a Cyber Security Analyst. Today, her tasks include detecting, investigating, and responding to cyber security threats.

"The knowledge and hands-on experience I acquired in school helped me to build my confidence at work."

She is glad that she had the opportunity to get a head start to pursue a career she’s passionate about. As she gains more experience in the IT industry, she hopes to take up a degree to further her interest in the future.

Photo & article by: Plus Collaboratives