Sophos steps up partner training as skill gaps continue

Sophos has increased the education available to partners, making its Academy available to those looking to increase their cyber security knowledge.

The vendor is making courses, webinars, workshops and video content available to those keen to bet security qualifications.

The Academy builds on the vendor’s previously launched Customer Success and Partner Care programmes. The partner content includes a monthly webinar and is designed to focus the firm’s channel attention on the latest technologies and threats.

“These live sessions are designed to enhance our channel’s abilities in selling and positioning Sophos solutions, giving our partners the competitive edge they need in today’s fast-paced cyber security landscape,” said Nick Fisher, director of channel and sales enablement at Sophos.

Partners will be able to take courses on sales and cyber security 101 as well as more advanced options including endpoint engineer and firewall architect.

“At Sophos, our goal is to empower you as a partner with the essential skills you need to drive business growth and safeguard your customers. Our sales and technical courses are crafted to support these objectives,” the firm stated.

The Sophos efforts are being launched against a backdrop of continued skills shortages, particularly in cyber security, and ongoing pressure on the channel to plug that gap for customers.

Research from Hyve Managed Hosting has underlined the size of the challenge, with the lack of skills still plaguing customers. The firm found that grappling with the lack of skills is one of the main challenges for the business leaders quizzed, with many bemoaning the high cost of hiring talent.

The top two areas where skills were in most demand were security and cloud, with customers turning to MSPs to help plug the gap alongside internal efforts to skill up their existing employees.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of business leaders surveyed said that they currently worked with an MSP, with many of those relying on their partner to manage their IT.

Charlotte Webb, operations director at Hyve Managed Hosting, said that there was a clear need to address the skills gap, but while those efforts continued, the channel consistently plays a key role.

“As we prepare for a data-driven future, there is clearly a growing divide between the technology skills employers need and the skills they actually have access to,” she added.

“Our report highlights just how complex a strategy is required to address today’s skills gap – one that increases collaboration between business, government and educational institutions to promote STEM subjects and the importance of IT skills across the modern working landscape.

“MSPs have an important role to play in that strategy – helping businesses to bridge the skills gap, focus on their goals, and smartly reappropriate resources.”