Education spotlight
Skills shortage in the tech industry and the impact on development of a whole industry
Ciara Campbell, Senior Security Engineer at Tenable discusses the acute skills shortages in the tech sector and how this divide can be bridged.
D
espite tough economic conditions, there are acute skills shortages in certain sectors. For example, there are 1 million IT jobs in the
UK that remain unfilled, with numbers growing. Te area which has the biggest skills crunch in tech is cybersecurity- almost half of the unfilled jobs are in this sub-sector. Here Ciara Campbell, Senior Security Engineer
at Tenable speaks with PCR about the skills shortage in the tech industry and how this phenomena is impacting the development of a whole industry.
Is there a skills gap in the technology and/or security space? Tis is definitely something we are all seeing along with a shortage of people. Organisations oſten share that resources are constrained with a lack of ‘good people’ to hire. A solution is for companies to hire people with less experience, or even an intern program, and spend time and money to train and upskill recruits. It’s not just about new hires, but employers investing in their people through certifications and training. While the technology skills gap has been a recurring challenge
for many years, recent reports suggest that this is particularly true in the cybersecurity sector. Harvey Nash Group suggests that there has been a shortfall of 10,000 people a year in the UK’s cybersecurity talent pool. According to Microsoſt, there are 2.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide. Tat said, there is an opportunity for organisations to think a little
more creatively about what they offer to their workforce. Te last two years has seen the traditional workplace change dramatically where employees are no longer confined by a physical office. While this introduces a number of challenges, particularly how to secure this
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hybrid environment and transient employee base, it also presents opportunities. Employees can work from anywhere, which opens up the talent pool to anyone. Given the flexibility in where to work, an equally flexible approach to the hours worked and that increases the options even further.
What is a career in cybersecurity like? Security can be about prevention and detection but I wouldn’t say it just comes down to those two aspects. Tere are many layers to security which is what makes it such a fun industry to work in. I have always said, do what you love and it will all fall into place. If you want to work in an exciting and fast changing environment with huge opportunities for growth then Security is
the industry to be in. Even if you think the technology is not up your street there are so many other jobs in this area that make it really exciting. I really feel people don’t realise this, you could work in marketing, finance, legal, HR etc. It doesn’t always have to be a technical position and you will still be excited about the industry and learn something new every day. Of course, it’s not all a bed of roses. Sometimes, keeping up with
all the technical knowledge can be hard and it’s so vast. I have learnt that everyone comes across things they haven’t heard of before or haven’t seen and it’s okay to say “I don’t know that, can you tell me about it or I will go and find that out”. An important lesson I have learnt is don’t feel like you need to know everything. It’s continuous learning every day.
Why is diversity important in cybersecurity? Diversity awareness has definitely increased recently, but there is still
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