Airul Qaiz Matthew, in his mid-30s, was retrenched from his role as a construction project coordinator due to the pandemic. “Being retrenched was a devastating loss to me. But I know everything happens for a reason. If I did not lose my job, I would never have come to the realisation that the workplace is ever-changing, and that I needed to reskill myself. Instead of being reactive, I had to become proactive,” he shared candidly.

Noticing the plethora of opportunities available, he decided to pivot into the tech sector. To gain the necessary requisite skills for a successful career switch, he took up the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP) Cybersecurity Associate course in NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB).

This transition proved to be challenging, as the last time he had learnt any tech-related skills was back in his secondary school days. Airul shared that he even struggled to use basic Microsoft operations. Undeterred, he persevered through the SCTP course and soon, the tech skills and terminologies became more familiar.

He valued how helpful and understanding his trainers were and, coupled with his hard work, his perseverance paid off. Subsequently, Airul secured a role as a Cybersecurity Administrator in the aviation industry where he conducts risk assessments for some systems and monthly log reviews. At work, he uses data interpretation skills he learnt during the course such as Structured Query Language (SQL). The course also motivated Airul to pursue certifications such as the Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Certified Information Systems Security Professional qualifications.

To those contemplating on making a career switch, Airul recommends grabbing any chance to reskill and upgrade. “Knowledge is power. Now most companies no longer look for those with ‘X’ years of experience. They want to know what skills and certificates you have — to remain employable, we need to constantly improve ourselves,” he shared.