Raffles Education Corporation

CYBER criminals can hack into your computer, steal your personal information, and get away with millions of dollars.

Stopping these criminals is what the Raffles Education Corporation's School of Infocomm hopes to do, by training professionals through its infocomm security advanced diploma programme.

The two-year full-time course aims to train students on the offensive and defensive approaches of cyber security.

Said Mr Benjamin Ng, the course's programme head: "With the rise in cyber-crime in recent years, our school started the infocomm security programme to prepare students to meet the demands of the infocomm industry."

In September last year, a report on Internet-related security threats faced in the Asia-Pacific region found that cyber criminals were becoming more professional - and even commercial - in the development, distribution and use of malicious code and services.

The report said Singapore had the ninth-highest number of phishing sites in the region. Phishing is an elaborate scam to steal information such as credit card details and passwords using various techniques.

Said Mr Ng: "The course is developed in close collaboration with established infocomm industry players. Graduates can find jobs in infocomm security, consultancy, and systems engineering."

The school will be launching a degree programme next year.

Apart from Infocomm, the Raffles group also offers degree programmes in design, business, and psychology. The School of Psychology has a full-time degree programme, where students pursue a degree with honours from the University of Wales in their third year.

Said the school's academic director Chelvi Rajahkan: "Students can find jobs in settings where management and leadership roles are involved."

She noted the Government plans to up the number of people trained to deal with mental health problems, with a target of 200 allied health workers by 2015, up from 111 now.

Said Dr Rajahkan: "Our school offers timely employment opportunities to address the shortage of professionally-trained psychologists and counsellors in the next five years, to support the Health Ministry's initiative of building a mentally-resilient society."

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