‘Codebreaker school’ planned for Bletchley Park
A National College of Cyber Security is being set up at the UK's World War II codebreaking centre, Bletchley Park. The boarding school for 16 to 19-year-olds is being created by not-for-profit organisation Qufaro, which is backed by top cybersecurity professionals, including the UK's Cyber Security Challenge and defence specialist Raytheon. Bletchley Park was the main site for British codebreakers during WWII, and is where the Nazis' Enigma code was decrypted. Margaret Sale, non-executive director of Qufaro and a founding member of Bletchley Park Trust, said the £5m restoration work would help preserve the historic site.

Getty Images / Ian Waldie / Staff

More than 70 years since the end of world war two, codebreakers are set to return to Bletchley Park.

The UK's first National College of Cyber Security is planned to open at the historic site that was once integral in the cracking the Nazi enigma code.

The college, which will operate as a boarding school, is being created by a new not-for-profit group that includes leading professionals from the cybersecurity industry. Called QUFARO, the organisation is opening the school for 16 to 19-year-olds.

Margaret Sale, a founding member of the Bletchley Park Trust and QUFARO non-executive director, who along with Tony Sale campaigned to preserve the historic centre, said the £5 million restoration work would help keep her promise to those who worked there during WWII.

"G Block, the one we wish to convert into the college, is outside the campus of the present Bletchley Park and if we get it in from this interesting project, it will mean I am a little nearer to fulfilling my promise," Sale told WIRED.

"Having history behind you always helps, gives colour and purpose to what you're striving for." The G building was used during the war to analyse traffic and looked at materials from the German secret service. "The Enigma messages were dealt with there," Sale says.

As well as Sale, who is a non-executive director and founding member of the The National Museum of Computing, the QUFARO group also has the support from others within the sector. The UK's Cyber Security Challenge; BT Security; Raytheon' and the Institute of Information Security Professionals are also involved. As well as forming the school, QUFARO will also launch a £50m cyber innovation investment fund in 2017.

The College itself, as long as everything goes to plan, is set to open in September 2018. The organisers are speaking to the Department for Education and finding staff to work inside it. "Currently we're refurbishing the buildings," executive director and CEO of Cyber Security Challenge UK, Stephanie Daman told WIRED.

"You can come from any background, it is going to be free to attend. All that we are interested in is your cybersecurity skill," Daman says. "One of our targets is to get a much fairer reflection of a much more diverse population." The group says its syllabus will be drawn "from the individuals working at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry in the UK" combined with maths, computer science, and physics.

There will also be online offerings from the organisation. Daman said: "We are having a virtual offering planned that will engage with more than 300 people. It will provide online courses and help for teachers, for example, which is hugely lacking at the moment." One of the offerings from the National College of Cyber Security will be the Extended Project Qualification in cybersecurity – the equivalent to an AS level.