The Global Cyber Skills & Training Shortage
Cyber-security threats are on the rise with the rapid increase of hacking attacks and data leaks. Recently, cybercrime has become acknowledged as one of the most significant threats to global business and is significantly increasing the need for Cyber Professionals. Skilled cybersecurity professionals are key, but there is currently a lack of cyber professionals and an anticipated skills shortage of 1.8 million workers by 2022 and another 3 to 4 million needed in the next decade or so.
More than 50% of business has reported that it has a serious cyber-skills problem with its employers and has real problems hiring new cyber talent. However, most organisations are not cyber training their employees very well and they have a real lack of current cyber security expertise and knowledge.
This problem applies in the UK, US and across the EU
The reasons for the shortage is often under investment in cyber education and training and often the technologies are evolving faster than training and education programmes. This skills shortage is affecting businesses globally and often they have real problems attract and retain security talent as demand is rising.
Currently the most affected business areas are regular internal and independent IT systems audits, cloud security and application security.
Cybersecurity professionals not being able to stay up to date on required work skills and knowledge as they lack an on-going training programme and this puts organisations at a significant disadvantage. Cybersecurity jobs remain in high demand in the UK and that number is only set to grow, with the skills gap still very much a reality for employers.
Current calculations suggest that there could be around 100,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the UK by 2022. However, the positive news is that it's an employees' market and if you have the right attitude and skills then getting a job is easy.
This is demonstrated by an increase in current IT salaries which for Cyber Security jobs is £72,500. In July 2019, the average salary for Cyber Security jobs rose by £1,386 (16%).
Entry-level IT jobs that pave the way for a cybersecurity career that requires continuous training for such jobs as:
- Systems management
- Database supervisor
- Web manager
- Web developer
- Network executive
- IT technician
- Security administrator
- Computer and network software engineer
You will of course learn from your job, but you will require continuous training and education. In fact, 35 percent of cybersecurity jobs require an industry certification, compared to 23 percent of IT jobs overall.
Most management-level cybersecurity jobs are highly specialised. The more you can focus your expertise by seeking out specific industries and certifications, the more attractive you’ll appear to companies looking for those particular skill sets.
To address the skills gap, businesses need to rethink how they recruit and train cybersecurity professionals
There are training courses recommended by the UK government at: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/cybersecurity-training and for more information please Contact Cyber Security Intelligence.
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