Kicking off our 2025 Breakfast Club programme at A&L Goodbody, we were delighted to welcome Sonja Lewis, Head of Professional Standards at UKCSC to Belfast. 

As Head of Professionalisation, Sonja’s work encompasses so many elements of the complex accreditation process, so we appreciated her acceptance of our invitation to come to Belfast to talk with NI Cyber community members about the updates to the Professional Standards framework.

As a community, we know that we have amongst us some of the UK’s leading cyber security practitioners, many of whom have significant experience across a wide range of competencies. Navigating through the vast array of accreditation bodies and schemes can be challenging, so it was great for our community members, including BT Group, ANSEC, Vertical Structure, NIHON Cyber Defence and MetaCompliance to have the opportunity to feedback to Sonja on these challenges.

Key topics we discussed were:

• The development of the Professional Standards framework, what it means for practitioners and how it can be better understood in the context of the growing cyber landscape.
  
• The mapping of the accreditation scheme and how it sits across licencing bodies
• The communication gap around updates in the Professional Standards framework
  
• Cost barriers to small companies and independent professionals
  
• Harnessing the power and reputation of the UK as a global leader in spearheading cyber security standards and accreditation, for the benefit of our professionals and society as a whole.

As a cluster, we seek to drive and enhance the professionalism of cyber professionals across our diverse range of companies.  Thank you to UKCSC for engaging and to A&L Goodbody for hosting.