The Cybersecurity Academy for Children and Youth, “Superhero Academy,” graduated more than 6,000 trainees in its third cohort through programs implemented by the National Telecommunications Institute (NTI) in cooperation with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority, represented by the Egyptian Computer Emergency Readiness Team (EG-CERT). Participants included graduates from 27 governorates, while the training was delivered across 19 sites in 17 governorates.
Engineer Raafat Hindi, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, attended the graduation ceremony at the institute’s headquarters in Knowledge City in the New Capital, in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Communications and participating authorities and companies, including Fortinet, Cisco, F5, and ICT-MISR.
Three Stages with Different Training Levels
The first stage targeted children between the ages of 8 and 17 and graduated 4,626 trainees. It focused on awareness of the risks of phishing and electronic fraud, account and password theft, cyberbullying, grooming, and electronic extortion, identity theft, and the sharing of personal data and photos.
The top 38 teams from the two age groups, 8 to 11 and 12 to 14, were selected to participate in an additional camp focused on developing ideas and turning them into projects, with a competition to select one winning team in each category.
The second stage targeted university students between the ages of 18 and 21 and had 1,324 graduates. It was divided into four tracks: penetration testing, network security, security operations centers (SOC), and cyber operations.
According to the institute, 382 graduates from this stage, representing approximately 28.9% of its graduates, completed actual assignments through 20 freelance platforms one week after the training ended, generating revenues exceeding $6,000. Graduates of the SOC, network security, and cyber operations tracks also received certifications from the academies of global companies, along with free or discounted vouchers for relevant international examinations.
The third stage included 227 university graduates with a background in cybersecurity and covered cloud computing security, governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). All graduates of the cloud security track received the “AWS Academy Cloud Security Foundations” badge and the “AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner” certification.
What Is Changing in Practice?
The significance of the announced results goes beyond holding a graduation ceremony, as they provide specific indicators of linking training to measurable outcomes: some participants moved on to carrying out paid assignments, certifications or examination vouchers were made available, and content was divided according to age and experience. Continued support for the teams qualifying to participate in the “Egypt Cyber Heroes Hackathon 2026,” alongside career training and guidance for university students, also expands the pathway from awareness to project development and preparation for employment.
certi.news analysis: The program reflects a direction toward building a skills base that begins with awareness among children and extends to advanced specializations such as cloud security and GRC. However, the published figures demonstrate the direct training outcomes for this cohort and are not by themselves sufficient to assess employment continuity or the program’s long-term impact—an issue that will require separate follow-up later.