Julia Sánchez

This paper presents the REWIRE Courses and Certification Framework, a methodological approach for designing, developing, and validating cybersecurity training aligned with the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF). The framework combines instructional design principles based on the ADDIE model with certification mechanisms structured around ISO/IEC 17024:2012 standards. It provides a replicable model that guides training providers from learning outcome definition to course implementation and evaluation, ensuring full alignment with ECSF occupational profiles. The proposed framework integrates theoretical, practical, and evaluative components that can be delivered through Vocational Open Online Courses (VOOCs) within Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and by incorporating Cyber Range exercises. The methodology has been validated through its implementation in the European-funded REWIRE project, which served as a practical testbed for its application and refinement, and was later applied in the NG-SOC project. It supports both upskilling and reskilling pathways and enables transparent mapping between competences, roles, and certification levels. In general, this approach bridges the gap between cybersecurity education and the European labor market, promoting quality assurance, interoperability, and recognition of cybersecurity competences across EU Member States.

This paper presents the REWIRE Courses and Certification Framework, a methodological approach for designing, developing, and validating cybersecurity training aligned with the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF). The framework combines instructional design principles based on the ADDIE model with certification mechanisms structured around ISO/IEC 17024:2012 standards. It provides a replicable model that guides training providers from learning outcome definition to course implementation and evaluation, ensuring full alignment with ECSF occupational profiles. The proposed framework integrates theoretical, practical, and evaluative components that can be delivered through Vocational Open Online Courses (VOOCs) within Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and by incorporating Cyber Range exercises. The methodology has been validated through its implementation in the European-funded REWIRE project, which served as a practical testbed for its application and refinement, and was later applied in the NG-SOC project. It supports both upskilling and reskilling pathways and enables transparent mapping between competences, roles, and certification levels. In general, this approach bridges the gap between cybersecurity education and the European labor market, promoting quality assurance, interoperability, and recognition of cybersecurity competences across EU Member States.

Internet of Things (IoT) has become a fundamental content of any engineering program due to the emerging need of experts in this field. However, the complexity of technologies that interact in IoT environments and the amount of different professional profiles required to design, implement and manage IoT environments, considering cybersecurity as a must, has led to a huge challenge in the educational world. This paper proposes an integral pedagogical strategy for learning IoT cybersecurity structured in three different stages, in a higher education institution. These stages focus not only on the content about IoT and cybersecurity but also on the competencies to acquire, the most suitable learning methodologies and the expected learning outcomes. The association of these concepts in each stage is detailed. Examples of courses are explained, the related competencies and learning outcomes are specified, and the contents and methodologies to achieve the expected results are described. An analysis of student results and stakeholder evaluations is provided to verify if the pedagogical strategy proposed is suitable. Furthermore, students’ feedback is included to corroborate the innovation, the suitability of the acquired skills, and the overall student satisfaction with the related courses and consequently with the proposed IoT cybersecurity pedagogical strategy.