Level 6 BSc (Hons) Top-Up Degrees Overview of 2021-2022

Level 6 BSc (Hons) Top-Up Degrees
      Overview of 2021-2022

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Overview of Belfast Met BSc (Hons) IT Top-Up
Degrees
Higher Level Apprenticeship offers the opportunity to gain quality training and a
recognised higher qualification while in paid employment. Higher Level Apprenticeships
allow employers to train staff to the level needed so they have strong technical and good
employability skills. The HLA programme is free to employers and there are no course or
exam fees for the apprentices or employers.

An apprenticeship can:

    •   fill higher level skills gap
    •   attract higher calibre staff
    •   increase productivity
    •   develop existing staff

Belfast Met will be offering two new Level 6 Top-Up HLAs in IT for 2021-2022 (subject to
validation by The Open University). These are Cyber Security & Networking Infrastructure
and Software, Cloud & Application Development. These Level 6 BSc (Hons) degrees are
validated by The Open University.

The HLA will be one and a half years in duration, starting in January 2022 and ending May
2023. Apprentices will spend one day on the programme for 30 weeks (per year) and the
remaining 4 days in employment.

These programmes have been created primarily for Level 5 HLA apprentices who have
successfully completed their Level 5 foundation degree. However the programme will
be open to others if they meet the entry criteria.

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Background to IT HLA Programmes

The Northern Ireland Digital Matrix Report of 2016 (http://matrixni.org/reports/2016-
digital-ict/) proposed the following opportunities for Northern Ireland within the digital
arena.

The Northern Ireland Skills Barometer July 2019 has indicated that there could a shortfall
of up to 11,360 skilled IT workers in Northern Ireland by 2028. With this in mind, Belfast
Metropolitan College has created two Higher Level Apprenticeship programmes that
addresses the need for a skilled workforce in the areas of Cyber Security, Networking,
Data Analytics and Software/Cloud development.

The qualification titles for these HLAs are as follows.

    •    BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security & Networking Infrastructure (Top-Up)
    •    BSc (Hons) in Software, Cloud & Application Development (Top-Up)

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Apprenticeship Recovery Package
The Department for the Economy (DfE) is offering an Apprenticeship Recovery Package
for Northern Ireland that channels financial support to local businesses to help the
apprenticeship system respond to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

The New Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme
This scheme is open to employers who take on an apprentice participating in the
Department for the Economy funded ApprenticeshipsNI or Higher Level Apprenticeship
programmes with up to £3,000 available to employers for each new apprenticeship
opportunity created between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022.

This incentive is available for all new apprenticeship opportunities created including
those made available for apprentices who have been made redundant by another
employer.

•Payment 1 - £2,000 after 90 days retention following start of new paid apprenticeship
•Payment 2 - £1,000 after 200 days retention following start of new paid apprenticeship

For further information and to download an application form for the scheme please see:
www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/coronavirus-recruitment-new-apprenticeships

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BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security & Networking Infrastructure
(Top-Up) – Module Overview
Advanced Networks (40 credits)

The aims of this module are:-

    •   Provide students with an understanding of further switching technologies such
        as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), Per VLAN Spanning Tree Plus Protocol (PVST+),
        and link aggregation and how to configure and troubleshoot them.
    •   Understand, configure, and troubleshoot first hop redundancy protocols in a
        switched network.
    •   Understand, configure, and troubleshoot wireless routers and wireless clients
    •   Configure and troubleshoot routers in a complex routed IPv4 or IPv6 network
        using advanced routing protocols.
    •   Understand and configure DHCP.

Cyber Security Operations and Response (40 credits)

The aims of this module are:-

    •   Security Operations and Management.
    •   Understanding Cyber Threats, IoCs, and Attack Methodology.
    •   Incidents, Events, and Logging.
    •   Incident Detection with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM).
    •   Enhanced Incident Detection with Threat Intelligence and Incident Response.

Final Year Project (40 credits)

This module will enable students to apply their knowledge and skills gained throughout
the course and combine them into industry relevant projects as seen in the working
environment. Combining different aspects of the subject areas previously studied in the

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course will empower students to develop skills that suit their preferred interests and will
present the opportunity for students to be exposed to a range of the practices and tools
used by relevant industry.

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BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security & Networking Infrastructure
(Top-Up) additional qualifications
The following vendor qualifications are offered along with the course modules.

Cisco Certified Network Associate v1.0 (CCNA 200-301)

This exam measures a students knowledge and skills related to network fundamentals,
network access, IP connectivity, IP services, security fundamentals, and automation and
programmability.

CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Security+ is a global certification that validates the baseline skills you need to
perform core security functions and pursue an IT security career. This exam will focus on
the following four cyber security domains: Threat Management; Vulnerability
Management; Cyber Incident Response; Security Architecture and Tool Sets.

Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate

The exam measures a students knowledge of security concepts, common
network and application operations and attacks, and the types of data needed to
investigate security incidents. This course teaches students how to monitor alerts and
breaches, and how to understand and follow established procedures for response to
alerts converted to incidents

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BSc (Hons) in Software, Cloud & Application Development
(Top-Up) – Modules Overview
Advanced Cloud Development (40 credits)

This modules covers the areas of DevOps, Cloud source control, and Containers. The
module will cover the following:-

Integration of the Cloud and source control
    •    Develop a modern source control strategy
    •    Plan and implement branching strategies for the source code.
    •    Configure repositories
    •    Integrate source control with tools

DevOps

Facilitate communication and collaboration
    •    Communicate deployment and release information with business stakeholders
    •    Generate DevOps process documentation
    •    Automate communication with team members

Define and implement continuous integration
    •    Design build automation
    •    Design a package management strategy
    •    Design an application infrastructure management strategy
    •    Implement a build strategy
    •    Maintain build strategy
    •    Design a process for standardizing builds across organization

Define and implement a continuous delivery and release management strategy
    •    Develop deployment scripts and templates
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•   Implement an orchestration automation solution
    •   Plan the deployment environment strategy

Containers
    •   Core Container Concepts
    •   Container Configuration
    •   Multi-Container
    •   Observability
    •   Container Design
    •   Services & Networking
    •   State Persistence

Data Science and Engineering (40 credits)

The aims of this module are:-

    •   Preparing Data
             o   Determine algorithms to be searched, define primary metric
    •   Data Models
             o   Design and create models
    •   Manage models
             o   Deploy a model as a service – No SQL DB, Data Lake Storage Gen2, or
                 Blob storage
    •   Data Design
             o   Design data distribution and partitions, relational data stores, relational
                 and non-relational, create linked services and datasets, create and
                 schedule triggers

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•    Monitor Data
             o    Monitor data storage, data processing
    •    Optimise Data
             o    Optimise for high availability, latency, and throughput, disaster
                  recovery, and global distribution (multi-region)

Final Year Project (40 credits)

This module will enable students to apply their knowledge and skills gained throughout
the course and combine them into industry relevant projects as seen in the working
environment. Combining different aspects of the subject areas previously studied in the
course will empower students to develop skills that suit their preferred interests and will
present the opportunity for students to be exposed to a range of the practices and tools
used by relevant industry.

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BSc (Hons) in Software, Cloud & Application Development
(Top-Up) additional qualifications
The following vendor qualifications are offered along with the course modules.

AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps
Solutions

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: develop an
instrumentation strategy; develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy; develop a
security and compliance plan; manage source control; facilitate communication and
collaboration; define and implement continuous integration; and define and implement a
continuous delivery and release management strategy.

DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science
Solution on Azure

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: set up an
Azure Machine Learning workspace; run experiments and train models; optimize and
manage models; and deploy and consume models.

DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: design Azure
data storage solutions; design data processing solutions; and design for data security and
compliance.

DevOps Institute’s DevOps Foundation Qualification

This course introduces; DevOps concepts and terminology; Core DevOps Principles

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Key DevOps Practices; Business & Technology Frameworks; Culture, Behaviors &
Operating Models; Automation & Architecting DevOps Toolchains; Measurement,
Metrics, and Reporting; Sharing, Shadowing and Evolving

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Entry Requirements for BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security &
Networking Infrastructure (Top-Up):

Students must have completed and passed a foundation degree offered by the Open
University at the College with Computing1 as the core discipline, or completed and
passed an equivalent level 5 course with Computing1 as the core discipline e.g. other UK
University Foundation Degrees at level 5, BTEC Higher Nation Diplomas, or any UK
accredited level 5 qualification that is equivalent in academia to a foundation degree or
the first two years of a bachelor’s degree with Computing1 as the core discipline as
proven at the time of application.

Students who do not meet this criteria must complete and pass the bridging qualification,
Cisco CCNA 1 (Introduction to Networks).

The student must also have GCSEs at grade C or above in English and Mathematics, or
equivalent qualifications, such as Level 2 Essential Skills in Maths and English.

Applicants who have already attained a qualification equivalent to or similar in content to
any of the modules may be eligible to be considered for Accreditation of Prior
Certificated Learning (APCL).

Those who have acquired learning through life, work experience and study not previously
attested through formal education or certification may be eligible to be considered for
Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).

1The core discipline of the qualification studied must be in the area of Computing with
subjects within the areas of Network Infrastructure or Cyber Security.

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Entry Requirements for BSc (Hons) in Software, Cloud and
Application Development (Top-Up):

Students must have completed and passed a foundation degree offered by the Open
University at the College with Computing1 as the core discipline, or completed and
passed an equivalent level 5 course with Computing1 as the core discipline e.g. other UK
University Foundation Degrees at level 5, BTEC Higher Nation Diplomas, or any UK
accredited level 5 qualification that is equivalent in academia to a foundation degree or
the first two years of a bachelor’s degree with Computing1 as the core discipline as
proven at the time of application.

Students who do not meet this criteria must complete and pass the bridging module,
M250 Object-orientated Java Programming and bridging qualification Azure
Fundamentals (MTC AZ-900).

The student must also have GCSEs at grade C or above in English and Mathematics, or
equivalent qualifications, such as Level 2 Essential Skills in Maths and English.

Applicants who have already attained a qualification equivalent to or similar in content to
any of the modules may be eligible to be considered for Accreditation of Prior
Certificated Learning (APCL).

Those who have acquired learning through life, work experience and study not previously
attested through formal education or certification may be eligible to be considered for
Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).

1The core discipline of the qualification studied must be in the area of Computing with
subjects within the areas of Software Development or Software Engineering

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Contact Details

Cyber Security & Networking Infrastructure

Steven Barr sbarr@belfastmet.ac.uk

Cloud & Application Development

Geoff Ewart gewart@belfastmet.ac.uk

Higher Level Apprenticeships

Philip Allen pallen@belfastmet.ac.uk

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Notes:

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Castlereagh Campus

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