Cyber Security Training


Cyber security training: How to recognize good content

Anyone looking for suitable cyber security training for their own company quickly realizes that there is a large selection, but really good offers are rare. Much of it sounds professional at first glance – but a closer look reveals how outdated or poorly thought-out some courses are. Especially in the field of cybersecurity e-learning, it is worth taking a closer look. After all, the quality of the training determines how seriously your employees take the topic – and whether the learning effect actually occurs.

1. storytelling with respect - instead of a lecturing tone

Today, modern e-learning for companies has to do more than just present facts. Storytelling is an important part of generating attention and making real-life situations comprehensible. But many courses fall into stereotypical roles: The “stupid” colleague clicks on the phishing link, the IT professional saves everything. Such narrative styles are not only outdated, they also have a demotivating effect. Good storytelling shows real decisions without exposing individuals. It allows learners to think for themselves instead of lecturing them.

2. shorter is better - if it's done well

There are still cyber security training courses that last four hours or more. This overload is not only tiring, but usually also a sign that no clear prioritization of content has taken place. Anyone planning a training course today should ask themselves the question in advance: Which topics are really relevant for our target group? And: How deep do we need to go?

You can recognize a good training course by the fact that it focuses on the essentials – and still leaves room for in-depth content. At skillbest, for example, we rely on modular concepts with optional in-depth content and shortcuts for the right answers to introductory questions. This quickly turns a one-hour course into a 15-minute refresher – without sacrificing quality.

3. technological zeitgeist as a quality feature

A simple indication of outdated content: People talk about CDs. Or chain letters. Or there is no reference to current topics such as AI-supported attacks, deepfakes or new phishing strategies in collaboration tools. If you want to offer serious cyber security training as a company, you also need to be up to date in terms of language and content. Not least because employees notice very quickly if the content does not fit in with their day-to-day work.

4. linguistic diversity and target group equity

An often underestimated aspect: the language. If you have locations in different countries, you should place value on cybersecurity e-learning in the respective national language. This is the only way to ensure that the message is understood – and not just formally “ticked off”. The same applies to prior knowledge: Training that underchallenges IT-savvy employees and at the same time overchallenges colleagues without PC experience does not do justice to either group. That is why we pay attention to differentiated questions and adaptive course structures that can be customized.

5. interaction and design as the key to acceptance

An appealing design is not a bonus – it is the basis for attention. Nobody likes to linger on a poorly designed website. Why should it be any different for corporate e-learning? Poor design, hardly any interaction and only standardized multiple-choice questions cause employees to switch off internally. Particularly critical: many cybersecurity training courses have to be repeated every year. What was boring the first time around becomes a real burden in the second year.

Good training courses, on the other hand, continue to inspire even after repeated use – with new variants, up-to-date cases, visual quality and clever interactions.

6. conclusion: Perfect product? There (almost) never is

If you take all these requirements together – up-to-date content, appealing design, relevant stories, adaptive questions, linguistic diversity – it quickly becomes clear that a ready-made standard product rarely fulfills these requirements. That’s why the path to your own cybersecurity training is almost always a path to individual development. The advantage: you receive training that doesn’t last four hours, but teaches what really matters in 60 minutes. And if employees do well, 15 minutes is often enough.

This creates real motivation. And valuable feedback such as “That finally made sense” – instead of “That was elementary school level”.

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