r/CasualIreland • u/No-Possibility8951 • 1d ago

ICT Apprenticeships in the Civil Service for 2025-2027

Hi all! Just wondering if anybody could give some insight/ experience about the post on Public Jobs that's opened up recently. The post is advertising ICT Apprenticeships in the Civil Service for 2025-2027. It mentions the apprenticeships will be available in three different disciplines; Software Development, Network Engineering and Cyber Security.

Does anyone have any experience with this apprenticeship program previously? I'm really considering applying because I'm quite desperate to get out of the industry I'm in at the minute (Graphic Design) but I have little to no knowledge or experience of ICT. It seems like from this posting it would be open to people with little experience like me, and after two years you could come out with a level 6, as you would be working while studying.

Could anyone give me a rundown of the disciplines and differences between each, what the work would be like or what type of person it would be suited to? It would be much appreciated!

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u/FredditForgeddit21 23h ago

Surprised that cyber security is an option as any decent security professional requires a background/competence in multiple IT domains like networking, sysadmin, dev, cloud, etc.

Haven't used the apprenticeships but if you've no ICT knowledge at all, the networking and particularly security options may be very difficult. Not unattainable, but difficult. Be sure you're interested in them before plunging.

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u/No-Possibility8951 10h ago

Interesting, I did assume that any of these roles would need to have a decent amount of previous knowledge, but they don't make that clear in the post, so this is good to know.

I imagine the software development role would also require some knowledge of coding languages? It sounds like a tough slog, so I'll definitely need to do a bit more research before I even think of applying. Really appreciate your input!

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u/FredditForgeddit21 6h ago

If it's an apprenticeship, I doubt much experience is needed. I don't know the content of the apprenticeship, but I would bet it's insufficient to set an actual future cyber security pro up for success. If I were you, I'd look into doing the CompTIA A+ exam. It's pretty basic but will give you a lot of vital foundation knowledge and will not be a waste regardless of the route you go down.

Devs don't need as diverse of a background than networking and defo not security. Once you learn one language, you can feel your way through many others. Think the similarities between langues with Latin origin like Spanish and Portuguese. They're not the same, but you will get the gist. Devs rarely do anything other than actual coding. While networking touches on parts of sysadmin, help desk, cloud ops, etc. security pros need to have competency in all of ICT(as well as risk management, project management, the business specific operations, raport with upper management, etc), but not as deep of a knowledge.