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About the Sentinel Programme

Learn what the Sentinel Programme is about.

Last updated 17 October 2025

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What Is the Sentinel Programme?
Programme Structure
The Sentinel Journey
What Participants Will Learn
Group photo of participants at the Sentinel Challenge 2025 event with colored headgear and a presentation backdrop.

What Is the Sentinel Programme?

The Sentinel Programme is a talent development programme to equip youths with cybersecurity and digital skills. The Programme is organised by the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS), in collaboration with the Defence Technology Community and fully sponsored by MINDEF/SAF.

Programme Structure

Students collaborating on laptops in a classroom setting, focused on tasks.
Secondary School Students

The programme will build foundational skills in computing and cybersecurity. Lower Secondary students will attend 3-day workshops during the school holidays.

Upper Secondary students will deepen their skill sets through holiday workshops and classes on Saturdays. Students will also have opportunities to visit our defence agencies.

Upon graduation from Secondary school, interested students will be invited to continue with the post-secondary programme.

Junior College/Polytechnic/ITE Students

The programme will deepen students' cybersecurity knowledge in real-world applications. They will attend 3-day workshops during school holidays, as well as classes on Saturdays.

Students will also have opportunities to visit and intern at our defence agencies and be mentored by cybersecurity professionals.

The Sentinel Journey

Participants of the programme can expect to:

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Achieve

Become more proficient and hone your skills further through competitions organised by the programme and MINDEF/SAF agencies.

Icon representing innovation, featuring a lightbulb with a gear symbolizing building ideas.

Build

Meet like-minded individuals from other schools and build strong, long-lasting relationships.

Icon showing a head with abstract shapes symbolizing learning and cognitive development.

Learn

Dive into cybersecurity and learn essential skills like coding and network forensics.

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Experience

See what life as a cyber or tech professional is like first-hand through visits, internships and mentorships with MINDEF/SAF agencies.

Find out more about the Sentinel Journey through the video below

What Participants Will Learn

A mentor guiding students as they work together on laptops in a bright room.

Examples of topics that participants will learn are shown in the table below.

Student Cohort

Examples of Topics

Capstone Projects

Lower Secondary

  • Introduction to Cybersecurity

  • Web Application Development and Security (Javascript and HTML)

  • Network Forensics

  • Server-side Programming

  • Developing a password-protected image safe

  • Detecting spam and phishing attacks

  • Developing a user authentication and attack detection application

Upper Secondary

  • Front-end Web Development with React

  • Web Application and Database Security

  • Cybersecurity Ethics and Network Penetration Testing

  • Developing a multi-page web application

  • Protecting and exploiting network protocols


Junior College/ Polytechnic/ ITE

  • Python Programming

  • Network and Cloud Security

  • Network Application Programming and Network Security Products

  • Developing web crawlers

  • Developing and breaking into Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) multiplayer games

  • Developing Intrusion Detection Systems, Firewalls and Anti-Viruses

Continue exploring

Check out our latest events or the commonly asked questions about the Sentinel Programme.

Latest EventsFAQs