SINGAPORE – For nearly a decade, Mr Muhammad Helmy Razali managed critical support operations to secure various sensitive sites including the Changi Airport and hospitals.

Now, the 33-year-old is doing the same but in the digital space as a cyber threat monitoring specialist at Deutsche Bank.

He made the switch after enrolling in the Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) in October last year.

The programme was launched in April last year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Institute of Banking and Finance, Workforce Singapore and the Infocomm and Media Authority.

As part of the programme, Mr Helmy underwent four months of intensive training at the Singapore Management University, where he gained fundamental knowledge in cyber security and picked up new skills such as network monitoring and threat intelligence.

Then, he underwent an attachment as a security operation centre analyst trainee at the German bank.

“That’s where I got to see firsthand how cyber security operations are like, and the experience helped me to gain all the technical skills,” said Mr Helmy, whose last job was a senior assistant manager of safety and security at a hospital, overseeing security operations.

“My teammates were also supportive and patient with me. I had a steep learning curve. It wasn’t that easy to gain that amount of knowledge within a short period of time,” he added.

Last month, his efforts paid off as he was offered a full-time job at the bank – just 13 months into the two-year TFIP.

Mr Helmy, who holds a bachelor’s degree in information technology, said his previous knowledge in IT helped him in adapting to his new role.

“I definitely think that even someone without an IT background could take this up, if you go for it with an open mind and try to learn as much as possible,” he said.

“The thing about IT is, the learning never stops.”

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