Addressing the cybersecurity talent shortage [Q&A]
Cyber threats are growing in volume and sophistication, but efforts to combat them are being hampered by a shortage of cybersecurity skills.
One way of meeting that shortage is to look at upskilling and retraining within the current workforce. We spoke to Apratim Purakayastha, chief technology officer at Skillsoft, to find out more about how using innovative learning solutions can deliver the skills businesses need.
BN: How does the skills shortage impact organizations' ability to secure their systems?
AP: Skills are simply not keeping pace with technology, leaving millions of positions unfilled and driving a major impact on the economy. The IT industry is facing a major skills gap as new technologies emerge. The cybersecurity skills gap is particularly alarming.
An (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce study declares the global cyber security industry is already 2.72 million people short. The Trellix Talent Gap Study: June 2022 revealed that 85 percent of cyber-security professionals believe the workforce shortage is impacting their organization's ability to secure increasingly complex borders and networks. Skillsoft's recent IT Skills and
Salary Report found the highest percentage of IT decision-makers ranking cybersecurity as the most difficult area for finding qualified talent.
We are a digital society and critical resources and infrastructure are all online. All organizations have a responsibility to further educational opportunities to their workforce to create more skilled cybersecurity professionals. As an industry, we must focus our collective efforts on addressing security issues and spreading awareness and education.
BN: What are the most in-demand skills at the moment?
AP: For the second consecutive year, recent Skillsoft research found that cybersecurity holds the top investment spot with 50 percent of IT departments worldwide making it a big priority. Meanwhile, cybersecurity is also the most difficult area for finding qualified talent.
Amidst continued disruption with cyberattacks, Skillsoft observed a 30 percent increase in learning consumption of security training content last year. The 10 most consumed topics and skills include cloud security, OWASP Top 10, API security, and software testing automation.
We also see CISSP, CISM, and CRISC certifications being among the 10 most pursued by IT professionals around the world.
Other significant important areas include cloud technologies, and data and machine learning. We observe significant increase in consumption of all cloud training material Skillsoft offers and increasing demand for more in-depth material in Data and Machine Learning. These are complementary skills that relate to cybersecurity as cybersecurity is often in the context of cloud and understanding intrusion patterns using Data and ML.
BN: What are 'career journeys' and how can they help to deliver these skills?
AP: Skillsoft focuses on workforce transformation via reskilling and upskilling. It takes a unique approach of offering rich multimodal content curated expertly into journeys that provide a guided path toward mastery of a skill or in a role. We curate videos, courses, books, labs, hands-on coding, and live-instructor based learning all into a seamless experience in Percipio.
Career Journeys are a series of career-centric learning programs that enable employees to develop and master mission-critical competencies at scale, and year over year. This multi-modal program brings an all-inclusive learning experience to the enterprise by blending live, on-demand and hands-on learning strategies, empowering employees with the training that they need, all while driving meaningful business transformation within their company.
The first two Career Journeys we have built are First Time Manager Career Journey and Cybersecurity Career Journey, both which will help learners develop critical competencies, at scale, across the enterprise. We plan to release series of career journeys in complementary areas like cloud and data in the near future.
BN: How can businesses ensure they retain the skills they've worked hard to build?
AP: IT decision-makers and their organizations need to invest in the professional growth of teams before it's too late. Furthermore, having a creative approach to training can make a significant difference in both engaging employees and making them more proficient in various skills areas.
Leveraging blended learning mixes styles, tactics, and content delivery modalities that make for a robust, effective, and tailored environment for all.
Helping employees to maintain an active passion for learning is important, but so is ensuring they retain gained knowledge. Luckily, technology can help retain new information -- especially when it's combined with tried-and-true learning techniques. Through tools like 'Learning Reinforcements,' learners receive reminders about what they learned and an experience where they can interact and dive back into the topics they find the most challenging.
Helping employees retain gained skills and knowledge boils down to four 'Rs': retrieve, recall, reflect, and refine. Without reinforcing learning, and regular assessments to benchmark skill competency, it can easily be lost over time.
BN: What effect will trends towards automation and artificial intelligence have on skills demand?
AP: Skills demand will continue to grow in these areas. Automation has many aspects including process automation, IoT, and digital transformation. All these skills are among some of the top in-demand skills for the next five years cited by the World Economic Forum. Artificial intelligence remains are a scarce area for available skills. Basics or understanding and applying to business problems will be key skills sought after in artificial intelligence. Both these disciplines are interrelated with security, cloud, and data. For example, an IoT automation project will include a strong aspect of data security and privacy. Skillsoft offers a holistic approach to all these related fields with Aspire and Career Journeys.
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