Charles White, managing director of The Cyber Scheme’s thoughts on why The Cyber Scheme needed to step up.
Few will know that The Cyber Scheme has just turned 9 years old, and yet it’s amazing that in the last 18 months we have established ourselves as a competent and reliable provider, not just to NCSC, but also to the wider industry and earned ourselves plaudits by offering, in collaboration with our sponsors, something new and innovative.
We needed to step up; talented, enthusiastic and able people desperate to be a part of our industry were confused and disillusioned with the dizzying array of best qualifications, best boot camps, best exams, best silver bullets, best training and industry jargon surpassed only by a fighter pilot. Then to cap it all we had seasoned cyber professionals turning their back on requalification, because it had turned into an assault course designed to ensure only the top 1% succeeded.
So here we are stepping up. We welcome the standardisation and order the UK Cyber Council brings and are planning to work closely with them to shape a chartered career ladder. We also love the work that CiiSec are doing around careers and skills. Both these organisations represent the industry in its entirety. In the coming months we will announce how we intend to help and support people wanting to get a foothold in the cyber security industry needing support, direction and help.
With our sponsors, partners, and APM Group we will continue to innovate in areas where standards, qualifications, and knowledge are needed.
But most importantly we are here to provide a platform for our sponsors, who are at the end of the day the employers of all this new talent.