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Professional Development

We support career development in many ways from our framework of professional certifications to a wealth of professional content delivered via a range of different channels.

Our pivotal position as a membership and accreditation body with links to hundreds of cyber security companies, thousands of qualified individuals, governments, regulators, academia and other partners and stakeholders allows us to utilise our network to offer professional development support for many different sections of the industry.

You will find links to a rich source of professional development content down the right-hand side of this page and information on pathways and programmes below.

Career pathways

We offer a comprehensive range of examinations across all the main cyber security disciplines leading to professional certifications at three different levels Practitioner, Registered and Certified. These certifications are recognised internationally as measures of skills, knowledge and competence and offer career progression opportunities for successful candidates.

The pinnacle of our career pathway is the CREST Fellowship. While not part of our formal certification structure, the CREST Fellowship is a prestigious professional accolade awarded to senior professionals in recognition of their contribution to the cyber security industry.

Find out more about CREST career pathways

Focus Groups

Our members have access to discipline-related Focus Groups where professionals can discuss issues and help shape CREST policy, approaches and research. The Focus Groups are a great way to network and work with colleagues from across the industry.

Our Focus Groups currently cover Penetration Testing, Intelligence-led Penetration Testing, Incident Response, Threat Intelligence, Security Operations Centre. We also have an Industry Advisory Group which is a forum for senior professionals from the buying community to discuss current industry topics and to inform CREST policy.

Focus Groups

Academic Partner Programme

Our purpose is to build capability, capacity, consistency and community in the cyber security industry. Our relationship with academic institutions forms a core part of this strategy and as a consequence we actively work with colleges and universities to encourage people to consider a career in cyber security industry and so grow the pool of available talent.

Academic Partners