When Mr Muhammad Syabil Mohamed Sazali was in his final semester at the National University of Singapore earlier this year, he was worried about his job prospects, given the current economic climate.

He had applied for jobs with no success, even as the Covid-19 situation slowly worsened.

However, the 25-year-old computer engineering major heard about the Cyber Security Agency's (CSA) Cyber Security Development Programme from the uni-versity's job portal, and applied in March.

He was surprised and thankful when he was accepted.

Next month, he will be among the first batch of 40 trainees to go through the programme.

He will undergo cyber security training with CSA Academy, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), FireEye and several other training partners for three months to develop both technical and soft skills.

After that, he will be attached to CSA's technical and operations divisions for 15 months to get hands-on experience in areas such as penetration testing, digital forensics, ethical hacking and cyber security incident response.

He will receive a monthly salary for the full 18-month duration.

"We will also receive industry certifications such as EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker and Cisco Certified Network Associates that are recognised globally," said Mr Syabil.

At the end of the programme, he will graduate with a Modular Masters awarded by SUTD, opening the door to better job prospects in the field.

He said: "The introduction of such a training programme shows that despite the economic outlook, there are still opportunities for fresh graduates to enter the industry of their choice and to grow professionally in their career."