Towards the end of 2018, research from global certification association (ISC)2 revealed that the cybersecurity industry is suffering from a workforce shortage of 2.9 million employees. That figure was staggeringly higher than the 1.9 million industry jobs shortfall that the same company had predicted in the 2017 iteration of its Cybersecurity Workforce Study. (ISC)2 did explain that it had introduced a new gap analysis methodology which accounted for such a large increase in just 12 months, but even if you took that huge jump out of the equation, all research points to the cybersecurity skills gap getting bigger, not smaller.
That is no real secret to the cybersecurity sector; neither is the fact that there is certainly no quick, easy fix. However, there are a few key areas where the problem has always stemmed from. One of those is the education system, and its failures to effectively prepare students for – and encourage them into – careers in cybersecurity.
Research from McAfee in 2017 discovered that 70% of British adults felt their education did not set them up with sufficient digital skills and knowledge of IT, with 88% saying they were not aware of the possibility…
