How a Large European Charity Upskilled Its Growing Security Team

"I know how much of a fundamental difference Immersive was for me getting into security. Immersive is a big reason as to where I am today. I was very passionate about it, so I knew it worked as it worked for me. I pushed to bring it in because it filled so many gaps in our skill sets and made financial sense."

Dan Clark

SOC Manager

One of Europe’s largest conservation charities, operating within the United Kingdom’s non-profit sector, recognized a critical need to upskill its growing security team. With increasing digital threats and the organization’s expanding reliance on technology, strengthening cybersecurity capabilities became a top priority. As the team expanded, leadership understood that effective, modern training would be key to keeping pace with the evolving threat landscape and safeguarding the organization’s mission.

The Challenge

Dan Clark, SOC Manager and an emerging cybersecurity leader, had experienced first-hand the limitations of traditional, presentation-based training methods. Upon stepping into his leadership role, he quickly identified a pressing challenge: how to efficiently upskill a small but growing security team with diverse experience levels. He needed a solution that could deliver practical, hands-on learning tailored to real-world cyber threats. Standardized, one-size-fits-all approaches wouldn’t be enough, Dan sought a way to foster continuous growth, operational readiness, and a culture of proactive defence within his team, ensuring they were fully equipped to tackle the complex demands of today’s cybersecurity environment.

The Solution

Clark presented a compelling case for its implementation, highlighting hands-on labs as a more engaging alternative to passive video-based training tools. He also emphasized the platform's broad spectrum of content, which spans all disciplines of cybersecurity, and noted the significant cost savings it offers compared to traditional certification training which can reach anywhere from £5,000-6,000 per person.

The platform was first rolled out across the Security Operations team, and then quickly extended to the InfoSec team. Over time, additional teams also expressed interest, recognizing the value of specialized labs in areas like cloud and network security.

One thing Clark values most about Immersive Labs is the breadth and accessibility of content. When his team needed to skill up on AWS to collaborate with their WebOps counterparts, he simply searched within the platform and found a complete career path ready to go, emphasising the power of the tool for both individual development and team-wide capability building.

As they shifted from a purely reactive approach to proactive security operations, the Team Leads aligned lab assignments with both business goals and their teams' personal development interests, leveraging career pathways such as Threat Hunting and Threat Intelligence.

The Results

Skills Development: Hands-on learning gave team members immediate value, improving both confidence and capability in key areas.
Cost Efficiency: By shifting away from costly, in-person certifications, the organization saw significant savings.
Team Engagement: While not every user engaged to the same level, having an internal champion helped encourage uptake and performance tracking.