How to train more cybersecurity experts in Europe?
How to train more cybersecurity experts in Europe? was the key question driving the discussion in the event happened on the 21st of March.
Dr Jason Nurse, co-Author of the ENISA report "Addressing EU Cybersecurity Skills Shortage and Gap Through Higher Education" helped the audience understanding the state of play of cybersecurity education programmes and future trends:
- Specific programmes in cybersecurity have significantly increased in the latest years, with Masters programmes being the most popular.
- More diversity is needed in programmes that are not specific to computing, e.g. Law, Privacy, Compliance.
- The impact of the Covid pandemic has raised the attention on the importance of cybersecurity, thus pushing students to enroll in such programmes. Graduate numbers are expected to double in the next 2-3 years but the gender issue still remains: only 20% of the students enrolled in cybersecurity related programmes are, in fact, female.
Several initiatives at all levels are being put in place to bridge the cybersecurity skill gap to comply with the EU digital goals outlined in the Digital Decade:
- Projects that are looking into the market needs in terms of competences, as well as into research on how to effectively bridge the skills gap are being funded at the EU level. The Platform itself, then, is also part of the European Commission efforts to raise awareness on competences and training offers.
- On the national level, Member States are including Cybersecurity Strategies in their wider digitalization plans, with key objectives and roadmaps to ultimaltely supply the job market with experts that have the needed set of competences. During the event, the cybersecurity strategy of Romania was presented as an example.
- Finally, businesses which are digitally mature have equal responsibility to deliver up- or re-skilling courses to their employees, as well as to more traditional SMEs to support them in their digital transformation.
Contribute to the discussion on how to train cybersecurity experts and share your thoughts by commenting this post:
Are you noticing the same trends presented by Dr Nurse, or have you had a different experience in terms of education programmes covering cybersecurity?
Are you aware of initiatives that your community is deploying to bridge the cybersecurity skills gap?
What do you think is still missing to effectively deliver enough experts in cybersecurity by 2030 and what are the actions to be prioritized?
If you would like to listen to the speakers´ speeches, you can rewatch the event on the DigitalEU YouTube channel
You can check the Mentimeter results here
Download the presentations used during the event:
