This year, Irradiate Security is offering work experience to high school students interested in cyber security and STEM, allowing them to experience the workplace and enrich their learning through the lens of technology. Their workplace allows students to experience a broad range of cyber security related topics depending on their interests, ranging from penetration testing to web design.

The skilled employees at Irradiate Security create a rewarding and personalised experience during each student's placement. They provide access to specialised technology used by cyber security professionals around the world and let students gain hands-on experience to enhance their learning. The whole team is passionate about inspiring the next generation to grow their interests in STEM, and they achieve this by sharing their expertise with every student. They encourage students to stretch themselves with learning entirely new concepts and taking on tasks they may not have tried before.

Irradiate Security has already hosted several work experience students, who were delighted by how their work experience placement went. These students provided testimonials about their experiences as work experience students at Irradiate Security so others could be informed about this wonderful opportunity.

Work Experience Student Testimonials

I have always had an interest in STEM and wanted to explore different career options within it. I first heard about Irradiate Security during my school’s career expo and was told about work experience. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after year 12 and I had never thought about cybersecurity but I decided to give it a go. During my work experience at Irradiate security I was able to learn the basics of cybersecurity. This included learning about networking, how devices communicate to each other. Different Wi-fi security protocols and Wi-fi hacking, as well as learning about virtualisation and making a virtual machine, and also pentesting. I really enjoyed my time at Irradiate security, and it sparked my interest in IT. I would see myself in the future working in the IT industry. And I’m glad I had the opportunity to do work experience because I was able to step outside of my comfort zone. -Shalom

My interests are in automating tasks with scripts and using those to dismantle and take apart things be it systems or networks, when I learnt about pen testing being a job I felt that it was something I was interested in doing. This work experience has really helped me in realising how interesting and in depth everything is within the field and has helped spark further interest in going into it, with everything from scanning wifi networks in the area to using professional versions of tooling I've used before and taking that and applying it was really enlightening. Being shown some online resources for learning more and seeing the reports that come out of the work that they do has been really helpful and I feel that I have learnt lots about the job as a whole, everything from being in the office to doing enumeration and exploitation of vulnerabilities. -Ben

I have been interested in STEM for a long time and technology has peaked my interested in the last few years. I took every tech class at school that I could including cyber security. I was looking for a STEM related work experience placement and was introduced to Irradiate Security during the Girls Programming Network and thought it sounded interesting and fun. Throughout this placement I have learnt a variety of skills with real world applications that I never would have learnt about anywhere else. The employees also provided deep insight into how their role works, unlike the surface level information that is typically received at school. I enjoyed the penetration testing aspect of this work and the skills that come with it. It was valuable learning about the Linux command line and how versatile it is, both in the everyday but also in penetration testing. Finding weaknesses in websites made me aware of how easy it can be to exploit a minor mistake and taught me a lot about how websites function. Overall I feel that I learnt a lot and I enjoyed my placement, from the actual penetration testing and the like to actual office life, extremely and would love to continue investigating into this line of work. -Caitlin

The work experience programme at Irradiate Security provides an invaluable opportunity for students to explore cyber security in a supportive, professional environment. Students develop practical skills, gain industry insights, and discover potential career pathways in one of today's most rapidly growing fields. This placement welcomes students with any level of technical background.

The experience opens doors to understanding real-world cyber security challenges and solutions. Students discover how technology shapes our digital landscape and learn about the vital role cyber security professionals play in protecting it. Many participants find their passion ignited, leading them towards exciting career paths they had never previously considered.

Stay tuned for announcements about future work experience opportunities with Irradiate Security.