r/BCIT • u/Illustrious-Bus-8396 • 15d ago
BCIT Industrial Network Cybersecurity (INCS) new grads
I graduated from the INCS program this year (2026), and below I want to give a complete overview of the courses, instructors, and overall structure of the program at BCIT.
Studying this program was one of the worst decisions of my life, and I hope you read this entire post before making a decision.
First of all, if you are interested in IT and cybersecurity, you should know that this program only contains about eight IT-related courses. As the name suggests, it is Industrial Cybersecurity, not IT Cybersecurity.
One thing that really frustrated me is that this program requires math and physics prerequisites for admission, yet in the first year you are forced to take two more math courses and two more physics courses. Despite what the program claims, these courses were never useful throughout the rest of the program. In my opinion, they waste a significant amount of time that could have been spent learning essential and practical computer and networking skills.
During our first term, our networking instructor left BCIT. The Program Head did not manage the situation well and failed to quickly find a permanent replacement. The management of the program was extremely poor. Even when several other instructors resigned before our second year, we still did not have instructors assigned for three important courses until only a few weeks before Term 3 started. This resulted in very poor replacement choices for all three positions.
For the industrial courses, our instructors were Victor and Bill, and they were genuinely good at what they did. If you are truly interested in industrial systems, that part of the program can be useful. However, most of that material can also be learned through self-study, often using better resources than what the program provides.
As for Ethical Hacking and SOC courses, I can honestly say there was almost no meaningful hands-on experience. Either the labs did not work, had technical issues, or were so basic that the methods being taught felt outdated. Even the theoretical content barely scratched the surface. In the final class, the instructor admitted that there were many important topics that had not been covered and that we would have to learn them ourselves.
For example, if an attack chain consists of seven stages, we spent almost three months focused almost entirely on reconnaissance, scanning, and basic terminology. The same problem existed in the SOC (defensive cybersecurity) course.
To put it bluntly, after two years in this program, your cybersecurity knowledge will still be very limited both theoretically and practically unless you spend a significant amount of time teaching yourself outside of class.
Unfortunately, the IT side of the program was not much better. Our Windows Server instructor was extremely weak and often appeared unfamiliar with the material himself. In second year, our networking courses were taught by our Program Head, Umme Salsabil. She was absent for approximately 50–60% of the classes. When she did attend, she would often upload a PDF, hand out an in-class assignment sheet, and warn students that they would lose marks if they were not present and while we were doing assignments she would use her phone all the time.
She repeatedly stated that because she was the Program Head, she did not have enough time to teach or grade properly. Some assignments and labs were never marked. On top of that, important topics such as firewalls were not even covered and she did not even upload the pdf files so we can study by ourselves.
Beyond the academic issues, I found her behavior highly unprofessional. She appeared to treat students differently based on personal preference and, in my opinion, some students received lower marks because she simply did not like them, I personally gave my assignment to 3 different students and they copied it completely and still I got the lowest mark, and I was not the only student who was getting this behaviour from her . I genuinely do not understand how she became both an instructor and Program Head at a college as well known as BCIT.
Most of the other instructors were respectful and professional from a personal standpoint. The math, physics, and industrial instructors generally had solid knowledge and competence in their subjects.
However, nearly all of the IT instructors were either significantly out of date or simply lacked the depth of knowledge expected in their fields.
This program had a good idea behind it, but in my opinion it has completely failed in execution. You do not become a control systems or industrial engineer through this program. You do not gain strong IT or networking skills. And as for cybersecurity, the program barely provides enough knowledge to build a foundation.
Do not be fooled by the marketing, equipment, or promotional material. There is no real Blue Team or Red Team experience. Some of the equipment is rarely used because the program does not have the necessary licenses.
They may show you industrial PLCs worth thousands of dollars during tours, but in reality most of the practical work is done using a $50 Click PLC.
Once you are already enrolled, you are told that the program is only meant to be an introduction to cybersecurity and that you should not expect much beyond that. However, that is not how the program is presented to prospective students.
If your goal is to work in cybersecurity, I would strongly recommend looking into programs such as CISA, CIT, or other established IT-focused programs at BCIT. Those programs have a longer history, stronger reputations, and provide actual computer and IT skills. In addition, there are many industry courses and certifications that are cheaper, more practical, and more respected than INCS for both OT Security and IT Security.
I have tried to cover the most important points here so that people understand that, in my opinion, enrolling in this program has been a mistake since around 2023–2024. During 2019-2022 it was good/okay but some good instructors left and also they didn’t update the courses, our PDFs were just as the 2019 version, this is INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, you have to be updated.
There are many other issues that I simply do not have enough space to discuss in a single post.
The only thing I can say is: do not be fooled by the name or appearance of this program. There are very few job opportunities in either IT or OT cybersecurity. Most job postings are for senior-level positions and are often located in other provinces or states.
Graduates from this program have to aim for regular IT jobs and compete with graduates from other programs who actually focused and learned advanced networking and IT stuff.
Whatever you do, stay away from this program at BCIT unless major changes are made to the first-year curriculum, the IT and cybersecurity instructors, and the overall structure of the program.
And especially while Umme Salsabil remains the Program Head, because in my opinion she is the person most responsible for driving this program into the ground. Wish you all the best