44 C h r i s t o p h e r F r i g o n : K a r l a W a k e f i e l d ; To p a n d r i g h t : B C I T
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
A P R I L 2 0 24
T R A INING D AY
BCIT delivers a wide range of hands-on,
technical training. If you're a banking spe-
cialist who needs to investigate shady trans-
actions, for example, the school offers a
fraud and financial crime micro-credential
to show you how.
IT analyst Christopher Frigon has been
working for various Vancouver organi-
zations over the last two decades. He
completed
BCIT's cybersecurity for IT pro-
fessionals micro-credential last December.
He didn't need it for his job—his employer
is a global enterprise with specialized secu-
rity teams to tackle those tasks. He just
wanted to familiarize himself with some
tools for personal development, and to see
if he'd like to add to or change his role in
the future.
This micro-credential delivers sub-
stance but isn't designed to make anyone
an expert. Becoming fully qualified as a
cybersecurity practitioner demands an
alphabet of costly credentials. Frigon is
thankful he got a taste of the field before
he dove in completely.
"If you start to pursue this area and then
decide, 'Oh geez, that's really not an area I
want to get involved in'—it's quite a financial
impact," Frigon explains. He gained useful
skills but also realized he doesn't want to
make security his central focus: "This was
a real nice, bite-sized type of opportunity
to get exposure to it and see if that's where
I'd like to grow my career."
Some micro-credentials are stackable—
they're stepping stones that can be used for
credit toward further studies like a diploma
or degree.
BCIT offers others meant to stand
on their own for professional development
purposes, such as its fraud and financial
crime investigation micro-credential, or
forensic nurse examiner micro-credential.
Students in those programs usually
have established careers and are taking
on roles that require them to add specific
skills. A police gang investigator might need
to learn how to track money laundering,
for example.
The forensic nurse examiner micro-
credential teaches skills that are sadly in
demand in B.C. "A lot of what we do is help
edu
cat
ion
TECH TIME
BCIT's hands-on
training helps
professionals in a
variety of fields
"This was a real
nice, bite-sized
type of opportunity
to get exposure to
it and see if that's
where I'd like to
grow my career."
—Christopher Frigon, IT analyst
