How you’d get it

How you’d get this certificate

  1. Zavmo teaches you. You learn the units one-to-one with an AI tutor, on your own work.
  2. You register with an approved centre. That is a college, training provider or employer OTHM Qualifications has approved to offer this qualification. Zavmo is not an approved centre, so you register with them, not with us.
  3. The centre assesses, and OTHM Qualifications awards. A qualified assessor at the centre judges your evidence, and the certificate comes from OTHM Qualifications.

More on studying for a qualification

01What it is

Expand your professional network and secure your career with our Advanced Programmes at OTHM Qualifications. Places are filling up fast, so hurry up!

These are the units OTHM Qualifications registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated. Zavmo teaches towards them on your own work, and work done here is recognised as prior learning under the agreements we hold.

Zavmo is not an awarding body, is not an approved centre, and is not affiliated with OTHM Qualifications. It does the teaching and the mapping. OTHM Qualifications sets this qualification and awards it, and a qualified human assessor makes the assessment decision.

Free first step

Try a free Future Fluency lesson first

The free part is a Future Fluency lesson on using AI at work. It is not part of this qualification. Next, a free account. We build your plan for this qualification as you set up. Teaching towards this qualification begins when you subscribe.

No card · Nothing to commit to

02The units

What each unit actually teaches you to do

Artificial Intelligence Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
This unit introduces learners to the principles of artificial intelligence and data-driven learning, focusing on neural network training and generative modelling techniques. You'll learn to build and train neural networks and understand AI applications across various domains.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the principles of artificial intelligence and data-driven learning, including different AI paradigms and their applications.
  • Understand the principles underlying neural network training, including backpropagation and optimisation techniques.
  • Build and train neural networks using appropriate tools and techniques.
  • Understand a range of generative modelling architectures and techniques in deep learning, such as GANs and VAEs.
  • Understand how AI can be used for both offence and defence in the realm of cybersecurity, including examples of AI-powered attacks and defences.
Databases Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
You'll gain an understanding of fundamental database concepts, including data models, database management systems, and architectures. The unit develops skills in designing relational databases based on user requirements and using SQL to interact with databases effectively.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the fundamental concepts of databases, including data models, database management systems (DBMS), and database architecture.
  • Design a relational database based on user specifications, including entity-relationship diagrams (ERD) and normalisation techniques.
  • Use SQL to interact with databases, including data definition language (DDL) and data manipulation language (DML) commands.
Digital Forensics Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
This unit provides learners with knowledge of digital forensics principles and investigative techniques, including evidence handling and chain of custody. You'll conduct forensic analysis of computer systems and storage media, and verify the authenticity of digital images and videos.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the principles of digital forensics, including the forensic process, evidence handling, and chain of custody.
  • Understand the key techniques used in digital forensic investigations, including data acquisition, data analysis, and reporting.
  • Conduct forensic analysis of computer systems and storage media, using appropriate tools and techniques.
  • Use digital forensic techniques to verify the source and authenticity of image and video data.
  • Understand the legal and ethical aspects of digital forensics, including data protection, privacy, and admissibility of evidence.
Ethical Hacking Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
You'll explore the role of penetration testing in cyber security, acquiring skills to identify, assess, and exploit security vulnerabilities through reconnaissance and scanning techniques. The unit emphasises ethical and legal considerations in controlled penetration testing environments.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the role of penetration testing in enhancing Cyber Security, including its benefits and limitations.
  • Identify and assess security vulnerabilities through reconnaissance, scanning and vulnerability assessment techniques.
  • Exploit security vulnerabilities in a controlled environment and report findings to help mitigate and prevent security attacks.
  • Understand the legal and ethical considerations for penetration testing, including relevant laws and regulations.
Malware Analysis Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
You'll study different types of malware, their characteristics, and methods of spread. The unit develops skills in malware detection and analysis using static and dynamic techniques, alongside strategies for protection and recovery from malware attacks.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the different types of malware that exist and how they spread, including viruses, worms, Trojans, and ransomware.
  • Understand how to detect malware and describe the challenges of doing so, including the use of anti-virus software and intrusion detection systems.
  • Perform malware analysis to identify and understand the function of malware, using static and dynamic analysis techniques.
  • Understand strategies to protect from malware and recover from attacks, including implementing security policies, patching vulnerabilities, and backing up data.
Security Testing Real unit · OTHM Qualifications
This unit covers a range of security testing methods, including web and mobile application testing. You'll perform essential security tests using appropriate tools and techniques while adhering to ethical and professional standards in security testing practice.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand a range of security testing methods, including their purpose, application, and limitations.
  • Perform essential web application security testing, using appropriate tools and techniques.
  • Perform essential mobile application security testing, using appropriate tools and techniques.
  • Understand the ethical and professional standards in security testing, including data protection and confidentiality.
03The standards

The national standards these units are built against

What the job actually needs, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.

  • Carry out digital forensic examination activities

    Standard
  • Carry out web application penetration testing

    Standard
  • Contribute to information security testing activities

    Standard
  • Direct information security testing activities

    Standard
  • Manage digital forensic activities

    Standard
  • Plan Penetration Tests

    Standard
04Where it leads

The jobs these credits are mapped to

A qualification is never a dead end here. Each of these is a job record this qualification is a mapped route into.

Showing 6 roles, drawn from 64 job records mapped to this qualification. Near-identical records are folded together, and each row says how many it stands for.

Where this can lead

Associate Penetration Tester

This work builds a foundation in ethical hacking. It can lead to a senior penetration tester role or a move into red team work.

See the whole journey
05The credits

The credits, and who awards them

Level 5 credits are regulated, and they are awarded by OTHM Qualifications rather than by Zavmo. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you have covered and what is next.

What you would be collecting

Artificial IntelligenceDatabasesDigital ForensicsEthical HackingMalware AnalysisSecurity Testing

Each one is a real unit registered against this qualification.

How you’d practise it

You don’t watch this. You do it.

You are not assessed on remembering this. You are assessed on applying it, analysing it, evaluating it and producing something. So that is what the practice is: projects, role play and your own live cases, with a tutor in the room.

The Analyst The Analyst · your map-it-properly tutor Illustration
The Analyst In “Databases” you have moved the target from 48 hours to 24. Where does that time come from?
You The team prioritises better, I suppose.
The Analyst Or it comes out of the follow-ups, and reopened cases climb in about six weeks. Let us map it and find out which, before it is a surprise.
The same lesson on the real thing: the conversation in the middle, the thinking ladder on the left, and the criteria each answer is evidencing on the right.
  • Map a live decision Analyse

    “Databases” runs on a decision you are facing now. Zavmo maps it with you and shows what the second-order effect looks like before you find out the slow way.

What you leave holding

The standards this credential builds, in the shape the product keeps them

Nothing here is marked learned. There is no learner on a public page, so the map shows what the qualification covers rather than what anybody has done.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
OTHM Level 5 Diploma in Cyber Security
  • Carry out digital forensic examination activities
  • Carry out web application penetration testing
  • Contribute to information security testing activities
  • Direct information security testing activities
  • Manage digital forensic activities
  • Plan Penetration Tests
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Artificial Intelligence, one of this qualification's own units.

Artificial Intelligence Level 5

Applied to your work in any of these jobs

This unit introduces learners to the principles of artificial intelligence and data-driven learning, focusing on neural network training and generative modelling techniques. Learners will develop skills to build and train neural networks and understand AI applications across various domains.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time. Teaching towards this qualification begins when you subscribe.

Your Plan Illustration

Built for OTHM Level 5 Diploma in Cyber Security

6 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by OTHM Qualifications.

  1. Artificial Intelligence
  2. Databases
  3. Digital Forensics
  4. Ethical Hacking
  5. Malware Analysis
  6. Security Testing
These are the real units of this credential, in its own order. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Learned on your own work, taught one-to-one.

Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your free first module is Future Fluency, so you can see how the teaching works before you pay for anything.

Build my plan, free

No card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.

The title, level, credits, guided learning hours and unit learning outcomes on this page are taken from the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Where this data comes from.