DCMS funding fuels cyber diversity drive

The government has announced it will be funding four projects across England to encourage more diverse candidates into cyber security jobs.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will invest £500,000 across the projects to get more women, BAME and neurodiverse talent into cyber careers.

This funding is part of the government’s Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund (CSIIF) aimed at increasing both the number of people working in cyber, as well as the diversity of those in the cyber sector.

“Our cyber security industry is thriving but to support this growing success we need a skilled and diverse workforce to match,” said digital minister Margot James.

“These latest projects show that whatever your background, ethnicity or sex, there are opportunities to join the cyber security profession. We want to demonstrate you can have a dynamic and exciting career in a sector that sits at the heart of our economy and is a key part of our modern industrial strategy.”

Introduced in February 2018, CSIIF is part of the government’s Cyber Security Strategy to fund organisations such as charities or training providers committed to filling the cyber skills gap.

The four new projects, which will have access to part of the new £500,000 funding, are run by Crucial Academy and QA Learning Blue Screen IT, and the funding will help these organisations develop and scale these projects, which are all aimed at training people from diverse backgrounds in cyber security.

The Crucial Academy Diversity in Cyber Security project is a Brighton-based initiative aiming to retrain veterans in cyber security, and is focused on female, neurodiverse and BAME candidates.

Neil Williams, CEO of Crucial Group, said the funding will help support its initiative, and that, as a veteran, he understands the importance of projects such as Crucial.

The QA: Cyber Software Academy for Women runs across several cities in the UK, including London, Bristol and Manchester, training women for cyber security roles.

The Blue Screen IT: Hacked project will use the funding to scale a project that already exists, giving people, including those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds, neurodiverse and special needs talent, the skills needed for a cyber career.

As well as train people in cyber, the project will also aim to create a “network of community Security Operations hubs”, according to Michael Dieroff, CEO of Bluescreen IT.

Dieroff said the hubs will “engage and service the local community and businesses with cost effective cyber security services. These hubs will increase the employment of IT professionals through cyber and digital apprenticeships, reducing the growing skills gap across all sectors”.