There’s no doubt about it, we have a crisis on our hands.
There are simply not enough qualified people to fill the ever-growing amount of cybersecurity jobs, thus prompting the question: is cybersecurity education the solution to the workforce shortage? In short, yes.
Cybersecurity education is the most useful tool of all and is an opportunity for higher education to reskill the workforce and upskill the industry. So while we now know that cybersecurity education is the solution – that leads us to ask, how do we implement this solution in a practical and efficient way?
Skills Shortage and Employment Gap
First, let us look at the opportunities that exist within the workforce shortage. The tech industry is booming and there are new jobs added daily due to an endless amount of new cyber-attacks.
With the employment gap growing, the answer is to fill jobs with competent, skilled cyber professionals. With the cybersecurity skills shortage worsening annually, it’s crucial to implement some sort of actual change and progress as soon as possible. Cybersecurity teams need to be built up and improved upon; this means hiring more people and focusing on a higher level of cybersecurity education. So, what sorts of high-paying cybersecurity jobs need to be filled ASAP?
- IT Security Specialists
- Security Engineers
- Information Security Analysts
- Application Security Engineers
- Network Security Engineers
- Cyber Forensics Analysts
- Network Operations Specialists
- Cyber Incident Responders
Just last year, over 50 percent of people surveyed by ESG responded that, yes, there was a problematic shortage of cybersecurity proficiency in their workplace. This will inevitably leave organizations feeling insecure and vulnerable to threats. Without cybersecurity, there is no security. So, what happens when so many feel open to threats? Well, the ones who are skilled at cybersecurity and information technology will definitely experience a greater workload. Of course, unfilled job positions will remain open and this will put businesses at risk. The ever-widening skills shortage has been increasingly bad these past four years.
So, how do we go about fixing it and what happens within the next several years?
Higher education implements programs that accelerate cybersecurity education to prepare prospective cyber professionals at a faster rate — in other words: use cybersecurity bootcamps.
Why Bootcamps Work
As the tech industry continues to grow, a traditional four-year education is not quite fast enough to ready future cybersecurity professionals to enter the workforce. Businesses are focusing less on degrees and more on skill. Tech giants such as Google, Apple, and IBM are shifting their focus toward skills-based experience. This is what makes a Bootcamp the perfect alternative to a four-year degree.
Bootcamps, unlike a four-year degree, take anywhere from 3-6 months to complete. There’s also the matter of affordability. The average Bootcamp costs anywhere from $11,000 – $20,000, far cheaper than the average tuition for an institute of higher education. With the price of traditional four-year higher education institutions rising through the roof and the appeal of campus living becoming less of a possibility, many education-seeking people are looking at alternatives.
Popular options include vocational or trade schools, as well as bootcamps and online school. So which option is best? Well, bootcamps actually blend both the hands-on learning of a vocational school and the accelerated speed of an online school to make students workforce ready in a fraction of the time. In less than a year, Bootcamp graduates receive the skills training they need to immediately get a job.
So…Are Bootcamps the Answer?
Yes. Bootcamps are education’s concrete solution to the cybersecurity job crisis.
In today’s digital landscape, especially with COVID-19, the world of working from home and online learning is essential. Unfortunately, there’s no doubt that institutes of higher learning struggle to shift to an online setting. However, according to Forbes, the future of cybersecurity education will not exist in the traditional classroom setting — bringing us back to bootcamps.
They have been proven to be incredibly successful. Coding Bootcamp graduates have seen a large return in investment, with over 80% of graduates reporting that they have been employed full-time after 1-6 months of completing the program. This alternative to traditional cybersecurity education is fast, efficient, and affordable – providing the perfect opportunity for higher education to address a a present-day crisis and take steps towards giving their students an opportunity to quickly and readily enter the workforce.
Conclusion
As the cybersecurity workforce shortage continues to grow, it’s clear that education is the vital tool in solving this problem. With the help of a competent, all-inclusive cybersecurity bootcamp that offers education and as well as real-life learning, a society’s cyber well-being can grow exponentially. The cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, and institutes of higher learning need to be prepared for these changes in order to provide their students the necessary tools to enter the workforce. Bootcamps provide higher education an opportunity to give their students one of the most on-demand solutions to a growing, but fixable crisis.
By partnering with Cybint, you can bring cybersecurity education directly to your community, even remotely. Yes, the cybersecurity jobs crisis exists and we know education is the answer — so let’s solve it together.
To learn more, schedule a demo.
