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Program Highlights
Immersive & Hands-on
Execute on-the-job, hands-on, industry tasks making you valuable to companies on Day 1.
Group Exercises
Learn how to work as a contributing member of a high-paced, elite cyber team.
Live Instruction
Hone your cyber security skills with expert guidance in an on-the-job environment.
Live Fire
Train daily to understand and fight real cyber threats from advanced attackers.
Apprenticeship
Get hired by the company and paid a salary during the apprenticeship. Learn more
Flexible Pre-Apprenticeships
Free gamified pre-apprenticeship programs with 2-year and 4-year colleges and in partnership with hiring companies.
Apprentice Full-Time Training
Duration: 6 months (optional apprenticeship with training)
1st quarter - Fundamentals
Fundamentals that every cybersecurity professional needs
1 - 4
Networking, operating systems, and the latest threats.
5 – 8
Identity and access management, monitoring networks and systems for attacks, and penetration testing (ethical hacking).
9 – 12
Digital forensics, malware analysis and reverse engineering, and incident response.
2nd quarter - Optional Specialized Training
Select your career path
Career path
SOC (Security Operations Center) engineer career path trains you from a tier 1 SOC analyst level through an incident responder. You will be part of a team that is responsible for monitoring company networks and systems around the clock to defend against threats and will work to identify and respond to incidents.
1 - 4
Continue building on your skills in network traffic analysis to hunt threats and use the same tools you will use on the job. Analyze traffic in your cloud infrastructure and work in a team to defend your infrastructure. Perform Dark Web monitoring and triage SIEM tool alerts with ticketing systems you will use on the job.
5 – 8
Work in your team to identify Indicators of compromise (IOCs) and write Yara detection rules to detect IOCs of threat actors targeting your company. Write scripts to automate detection and analysis, remove malware from company systems, and continue building your threat hunting skills.
9 – 12
Work in your incident response team to investigate alerts escalated by the SOC tier 2 team and respond to live-fire incidents. Build IR playbooks and hunt advanced threats. Identify attack pathways to your company’s critical assets and build defenses against live-fire attacks from instructors. Analyze and reverse engineer advanced malware samples and perform forensic investigations.
The Penetration Tester (Pen Tester) career path prepares you for an intermediate level pen tester career. You will be responsible for performing internal and external penetration testing of a company’s network and applications. You and your team will use your skills to attack the networks of other teams using the latest hacking techniques. You will use your social engineering skills to bypass a company’s defenses without being caught and communicate the findings of your penetration test to stakeholders across the organization.
1 - 4
Work in your team to execute network penetration tests in different industries and communicate your pen test findings to the executive team. Hands-on projects where you learn to live off the land and not rely on hacking tools that are easy for the defensive team to detect.
5 – 8
Write your own hacking tools and use them to legally break into companies. Continue building your pen testing skills as your team hacks the networks of other teams in live-fire events.
9 – 12
Build more complex pen testing tools. Work in your team to perform web application penetration testing for real businesses and help them secure their systems better.
The Cloud Security Engineer career path builds your skills using the leading public cloud platforms, Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. You will build cloud infrastructure and networks, monitor and secure them. You will gain hands-on experience with cloud secrets management, built-in AWS and Azure tools for security and third-party tools used by leading companies.
1 - 4
Work in your team to help companies migrate to the cloud and build, secure and monitor your cloud infrastructure. Manage and restrict access to critical resources in the cloud.
5 – 8
Scan your cloud environment with tools like Nmap and Metasploit to identify exploitable vulnerabilities. Write custom scripts to locate private S3 buckets and attack and secure APIs.
9 – 12
Attack and secure database services, like Aurora, with your team in live-fire events. Locate and secure EC2 instances, attack WordPress websites and learn how to harden them against attack.
The Security Engineer career path prepares you to design, build, and implement security solutions for companies. You will leverage your threat hunting skills to identify new attack routes and build defenses against them and develop information security strategy for organizations. Build business continuity and disaster recovery plans for companies.
1 - 4
Work in your team to identify critical assets, services and data for the company. Identify and prioritize risks to these and build a plan to manage risk. Develop policies and processes to maintain full visibility into your digital and physical assets and their interconnections.
5 – 8
Analyze incidents with your team and build detection engineering capabilities to reduce the risk to critical assets, data and services. Build continuous monitoring solutions to improve the company’s security posture.
9 – 12
Develop strategies to help companies recover and restore capabilities and services following a cyber-attack. Work in your team to architect networks for security across industries.
The Risk Engineer career path prepares you to build risk models and help companies remain compliant with governing bodies and lower their exposure to risk. This path can prepare you for a number of GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) careers.
1 - 4
Work in your team to help companies improve their external security posture and security score. With your team, identify pathways to critical assets and communicate your findings to senior stakeholders.
5 – 8
Work in your team to perform risk assessments and weigh the needs of businesses and critical operations against the security concerns and then effectively communicate this information to senior executives.
9 – 12
Work with real companies to build roadmaps to improve the security posture of companies, so they can reduce their cybersecurity insurance premiums and reduce their organizational risk in the long-term. Assess the impact of software supply chain compromise attacks (I.e.- SolarWinds) and recommend ways companies can reduce their risk exposure.
Full-Time Schedule
| Days | Monday to Friday |
| Time | 8:30 AM - 5 PM Central Time |
| Instructor-led | 2 hours |
| Office hour | Flexible |
| Expert reach back | Flexible |
Day Prep
Review and prepare for your days objectives.
Projects & Tasks
Participate in an instructor-led team session to understand what you’re doing and why it matters as you protect your business network from hackers, perform a forensic investigation or hunt for threats.
Self-Directed Work
Learn how to problem solve in self-driven learning and project setup, based on projects allocated by your instructor.
Lunch
Rest and refuel for an hour.
Guided Skills Time
Immerse yourself in a live cyber range as you hone your hands-on skills while hacking into a company to steal data, evading a defense team in real-time or defending your company’s network from a state-sponsored attack.
Project Completion
Refine and put the finishing touches on any projects you’re working on that showcase your skills to potential employers.
Project Team Meeting
Collaborate with and support your peers as you work with your team and instructor on task completion and integration.
System Prep & Team Objectives
Sync up with your team to prepare for your days activities and objectives.
Team Challenge – Defend Against Criminal Hackers
Participate in realistic, team-based on-the-job challenge such as defending against red team (hacking) compromise.
Team Milestone Report
Meet with your team to discuss your first challenge – sharing what you learned and the challenges you faced as you prepare to progress to the next stage of the challenge.
Lunch
Rest and refuel for an hour.
Team Challenge – Contain Attacks On Critical Systems
Continue with your team challenge by responding to the attackers as they propogate to a financial data center and virtual reality servers.
Team Challenge – Recover from Ransomware Attack
Advance to the next stage of your team challenge by working through recovery options from a ransomware attack and reporting your results to the board
Team Milestone Report with Feedback & Learnings
Recap the challenge your team faced today, sharing what went well and what could be improved through each stage.
Career Placement
Full-Time Schedule
Once selected, and depending on the apprenticeship, you will have the opportunity to:
- Get hired by the company and paid a salary during the apprenticeship.
- Get part or full RA tuition paid by a company
- Receive experts’ guidance on-the-job
- Get your apprenticeship DOL-certified
How it works
- Schedule
- Month 1-3: 100% academy training
- Month 4-6: Training combined with on-the-job work
- Month 7-12: 100% on-the-job work
- Schedule
- Training is remote
- On-the-job work may be remote or on-site
- Consideration Process
You have the options to be considered at any time during the academy application process or during your study, depending on availability.
Each apprenticeship requires testing and/or interviewing with the company offering the apprenticeship
Early Matching
We begin the process of identifying potential career matches early in our gamified pre-apprenticeship program to help ensure our students and employers alike receive the best mutual fit. From Day One, you’ll work through a company-approved curriculum, build your portfolio, with align yourself to open job positions and prepare you for your upcoming apprenticeship.
System Flight Time
For some companies, you’ll receive micro-certifications that align with specific industry roles. The micro-certifications are what we call “Flight Time” and provide training on the systems required to hit a ground running once you begin your career. System Flight Time includes time with malware, controls and systems directly relevant to your future career.
You as the learner pay nothing
You can elect to take any unit.
| Unit | Length | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Credential | 3 courses | $2,250 |
| Full certification | 8 credentials | $18,000 |
Return on investment
| Position | Cyber Career (average) | Programming Career (average) |
|---|---|---|
| Average US Entry-level Salary Source:Glassdoor | USD 70,000 | USD 56,000 |
At RapidAscent, we are striving to create an education that is affordable and attainable for everyone. In our program, if you demonstrate the aptitude and skills early on for cybersecurity, then we match you to companies that provide paid apprenticeships and cover your tuition for our accelerated apprentice training.
Upfront Tuition
You can select to pay your full tuition upfront before beginning your cohort.
How It Works
You can select to pay your full tuition upfront before beginning your cohort.
Tuition Installments
An alternate option to paying tuition upfront or deferring until after graduation is to pay your tuition in installments over time.
How It Works
Your tuition payment schedule will be based on your cohort timing and selected payment period. One-third of the tuition payment will be due by the beginning of each quarter, so you can pay as you go.
Deferred Tuition Agreement
You can also select to defer your tuition payment until after you’ve graduated and begun your career. This is done through a Deferred Tuition Agreement (DTA).
How It Works
By signing the DTA, you agree to pay the tuition once you’re hired and making more than $50,000 per year. Payments will be made over time using 14% of your salary until the $18,000 is paid in full. If you do not get a job, you do not pay.
FAQs
A Deferred Tuition Agreement (DTA) is a form of financial instrument, which provides students with educational funding in exchange for a deferred tuition repayment that starts once you are employed with a salary level over $50,000 with a small percentage of the student’s future earnings until paid in full. A DTA offers zero percent interest and is a flexible and safe method to finance your education related expenses as compared to private educational lenders. Because the amo.
With traditional private loans, student-borrowers must pay back the principal amount and accrued interest, irrespective of their future income or employment circumstances? Under a loan, failure to pay back accrued interest can lead to ‘negative amortization’, which means your principal loan balance increases over time despite making minimum payments. With an Deferred Tuition Agreement, there is absolutely no risk of negative amo.
No! Our investment is in you and only you need to sign.
For the DTA the cap equals the tuition so that the total payment will never exceed the tuition amount.
Completing our online application utilizes what is called a “soft-pull”, which will not impact your credit score. While your credit score is not a priority, certain merit indicators may overlap with items also included in your credit score, such as: recent garnishments, lien attachments, judgments or tax liens, bankruptcy, or unsatisfied suits or judgments.
Following program completion (and your applicable grace period), your monthly payments will be indexed to a specified percentage (14%) of your pre-tax earnings for the prescribed contract term ? After making ordinary payments over the designated contract term. Since your monthly payments are calculated as a fixed percentage of your earned income, if you become unemployed, face unexpected salary shocks or other work-related financial hardships, your payments will be commensurately lowered, or wa.
Typical private lenders use a grace period because their loans must be repaid irrespective of your circumstances.? With a DTA, however, you will only pay it back if and when you are gainfully employed and earning above an income floor based on your degree or career. With an Deferred Tuition Agreement, your repayments will start only once you are gainfully employed, and earning more than a base amount? So, if it takes you longer than expected to find a job, there is no interest accumulation.
Yes, many cybersecurity professionals work remotely especially post-pandemic. With a DTA, you have the flexibility to keep the contract for the full term and benefit from the built-in protections against unemployment, or you may pre-pay early? The choice is entirely yours.
We are exploring additional financing options for international students. In the meantime, international students have the option of paying tuition upfront or in quarterly installments.
No!? With a DTA, there is no penalty should you choose to pay-off your DTA early. To end your DTA contract, all you have to do is pay the tuition amount that is set forth in your agreement.
Apprenticeships are an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway that provide relevant workplace experiences while acquiring the skills, abilities, and credentials that employers value.
Apprenticeships can provide affordable paths to secure, high-paying jobs and careers without the typical student debt.
The apprenticeship program does not typically require any college or institutional degree. For most apprenticeships, the only requirement is a high school diploma. This said, there are some occurrences where the job apprenticeship does require a college degree such as a B.S. in engineering or may require prior coding experience.
The length of an apprenticeship program can vary depending on the employer, industry, and type of apprenticeship program. Department of Labor certified programs are typically 12-18 months.
The training portion of the program with RapidAscent is normally remote full-time training for months 1-3 (firstquarter) and up to 40% training and 60% on-the-job learning work for months 4-6 (second quarter). The last two quarters during months 7-12 (or 18) are typically full on-the-job work with expert reach back from RapidAscent.
While RapidAscent makes a range of apprenticeship opportunities available to student learners, the candidates must still apply, interview, and be hired to the apprenticeship by the company. For this reason, there is no guarantee by RapidAscent that the candidate learner will be hired into an apprenticeship program even when RapidAscent is the trainer for the program.
“Typically, a company offering an apprenticeship will hire their apprentices with a salary-based entry-level position for the on-the-job component. Depending on the company, they may or may not pay salary while in the first 3 months of training. In addition, some companies, depending on their apprenticeship program, may cover part or all of your tuition.”
Once you apply and are accepted into the RapidAscent program, the current apprenticeship opportunities are displayed, and you are redirected to active apprenticeship programs.
On average, nationally 92% of apprentices retain employment after completing an apprenticeship program and on average earn over $300,000.00 more over their career when compared against their peers who do not participate in an apprenticeship program.
You will receive macro and micro-credentials for completing courses and sets of courses during the training phase and will receive a Credlyrecognized certificate of completion for the apprenticeship program. For partnering companies, the RapidAscent micro-credential may be awarded jointly with the corporate partner’s credential. Typically, the apprenticeships are Department of Labor approved.
Apprentices are required to work/train 32-40 hours per week. While hours may vary, the typical schedule is normally from during a 9-hour workday with an hour lunch Monday-Friday. Some allow for more flexible schedules.
Apprentices are full-time apprenticed employees from day one and, if apprenticeship requirements are met (taking and passing classes and learning through on-the-job training), full job employment is not guaranteed and will be determined by the company upon completion of the program.
This varies by employer and apprenticeship program. Typically, the employer or a grant program may pay for all or part of the tuition. Training material that are required for the apprenticeship program will be paid for by the tuition.
This depends on the company offering the apprenticeship program. The company offering the apprenticeship will list whether it is an onsite or remote training/job. If onsite, the locations will be provided. Most apprenticeship opportunities offered to learners are remote training for the first 3 months.
If you are accepted to an apprenticeship program partway through the program, then typically this previous training can be counted towards the completion of the apprenticeship program. So, if you have already completed the first quarter of the RapidAscent program, then you will be given one-quarter of credit in the apprenticeship program.
Apprentice Application Process
Create an Account
Have fun in our free pre-apprenticeship experience, learning about cyber and showing off your skills in a series of gamified rooms. Unlock badges to move forward and see if you can level up to be considered for a paid apprentice.
More About You
As part of your application, you will have the opportunity to fill out your profile that companies can see when they review candidates for apprentices for the case that you level up. Fill this out as you go and be ready.
Company Interview
If a company is interested in you as a possible apprentice after leveling up, you will be asked to schedule an interview with the company.
Notification
If a company interviews you and selects you, you will be notified of the apprenticeship offer and work with the company to finalize any application material. You will be placed within a cohort, either corporate dedicated or a cohort training mixed with other companies.
Orientation & Enrollment
Upon acceptance and receiving your cohort, we’ll finalize your enrollment and set up orientation to get started!
Begin Your Career In Cybersecurity
Come join the countdown to the fall pre-apprenticeship program.
