National Audit Office
(NAO) stated that the
current IT skills gap in
the UK could take more
than 20 years to address,
costing an estimated £27
billion a year and leaving
the country's critical
infrastructure extremely
vulnerable to cyber-
attacks.
4.25 million people by 2015, Government
ministers have since lead a recruitment
drive to increase the amount of
professionals entering the cyber domain.
It has begun funding apprenticeships and
trainee schemes, including one at GCHQ,
and is also subsidising academics from
Africa, Asia and America who will join
Cranfield University's cyber policy course.
we are lead to believe it is? There are
already almost 100 UCAS accredited UK
universities offering one or more Cyber
security related degree courses (at all
levels from BSc through to PhD), with the
uptake of places very high across the
number of recruits wanting to take up
roles in industry, but the recruitment
process itself?
this year, Professor Tim Watson believes
there is no shortage of future cyber
experts. "The high profile in the media
that cyber has received recently, means
that most people who are interested in a
career in IT, computer science or related
disciplines are aware of cyber. It's also
quite glamorous, very fashionable and the
salaries are very good," Watson said.
need for instant results mean that many
companies are searching for the "perfect
employee" one with a mountain of
experience yet willing to work for next
to nothing. These are the candidates
which do not exist. If the recruitment
criteria was extended to afford greater
investment and opportunity to interns
and new graduates, would they surely not
be repaid in triplicate in terms of energy,
enthusiasm and new ideas?
CyberTalk, students from across the UK's
academic institutions, starting this issue
with the Cyber Security Centre at De
Montfort University, will demonstrate that
the skills gap is not as wide as we're led
to believe...