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The MiDO Academy is a full-time training programme dedicated to stimulating inclusive economic growth in South Africa by empowering young people with vital cybersecurity skills. The initiative does more than prepare learners for work in cyber – it opens doors to opportunities, sets up careers and builds a path to lasting change.
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Local cybersecurity services organisation, Orange Cyberdefense has reaffirmed its commitment to the MiDO Academy through ongoing support and hands-on mentorship programmes.
“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, now in its third cohort with 21 learners, is currently immersed in an intensive curriculum that develops both their technical and professional capabilities.
“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” says Bensusan.
To address this, Orange Cyberdefense is introducing a comprehensive hands-on work experience project into the MiDO curriculum aimed at giving students real-world work experience.
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.
This initiative, which was trialled with five students in the last cohort and will now be rolled out to the entire 2025 cohort for four months starting August 1st, is led by senior security researcher at Orange Cyberdefense, Wicus Ross. The project will see learners being exposed to real-world cyber assignments – from threat hunting and vulnerability testing to collaborative research on live cases – under expert guidance.
“Our observations from the 2023 cohort 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,” notes 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
Complementing the structured work experience programme, Boniface has taken a deeply personal approach to supporting the MiDO learners. He dedicates one day each month to visit the MiDO classroom and make himself available as a soundboard for any queries or questions the students may have – about anything, technical or professional.
“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, Zade shifts the students to a “ready for work” mindset and bridges 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.
Some of the practical projects he’s assigned include:
- Group work presentations on Edward Snowden, The Shadow Brokers, Eternal Blue and the WannaCry Ransomware attacks
- OSINT reporting, where students had to compile a report of all publicly available information they could find on Zade
- Most recently, the students completed a Network As-built documentation project based on their home networks
Recent Accreditation Milestone
The MiDO Academy, recently achieved official accreditation as a Skills Development Provider (SDP) for the Occupational Certificate: Cybersecurity Analyst (NQF Level 5). This milestone reinforces MiDO’s commitment to rigorous, nationally recognised training that prepares learners for real-world roles.
“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 director of the MiDO Academy Dale Simons.
“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,” Bensusan adds.
Together with the MiDO Academy, it is helping to nurture the next generation of cybersecurity professionals – not only by equipping them with technical knowledge, but by believing in their potential to change the world.
“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.
